US-led coalition air strikes on Isis-held oilfields in eastern Syria have become so intense that locals say production could drop sharply, a move that would threaten the jihadi group’s most important revenue stream.
A week of heavy strikes in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province has pounded Isis-controlled infrastructure and vehicles involved in the oil trade, which an investigation by the Financial Times estimates nets the group about $1.5m a day, and has helped embed it within civilian populations involved in the trade.
“The strikes are insane, sometimes 20 in a few hours,” said one man who lives near Syria’s al-Tanak oilfield and whose family has been trading in Isis-produced crude. “If the strikes go on like this they could stop oil production.”