[Chicago Tribune] U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bandidos faceless myrmidons have eliminated most of the Sunni terrorist group's oil-refining capacity and reduced its revenue, a State Department envoy said.
Islamic State has lost at least 22 of its modular refineries, wiping out at least 11,000 barrels a day of refining capacity since Arclight airstrikes began, said Amos Hochstein, acting special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.
While more must be done to dry up the oil revenue, "we believe our efforts have been successful," Hochstein said Tuesday on a conference call with news hounds.
Islamic State may still be producing about 50,000 barrels of crude a day, possibly generating about $1 million daily from smuggling it, said Hochstein, who emphasized that estimates vary and may not be reliable.
| So down another 50%? Excellent. |
That equals $20 a barrel, well below the market price.
"Revenue has fallen significantly" since Arclight airstrikes began, he said. Islamic State declared a self-styled caliphate in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria after taking over a swath of Iraq, including djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, in June.
Brent crude for January settlement declined 67 cents, or 0.8 percent, Tuesday to $78.64 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Islamic State consumed about half the oil it produces, according to a report last month by IHS Inc. 
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