ISIS claims deadly Homs car bomb Published Monday, December 29, 2014 A car bomb exploded near a gas plant in Syrias Homs province on Monday killing eight people, including four soldiers, and wounding 15 others. Meanwhile, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said the two Moroccan militants who carried out the attack had died. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the car bomb attack on a checkpoint guarding the Firqlos gas plant in Homs province killed eight people, including four Syrian army soldiers, and wounded 15 others. The Britain-based group said it was not clear if suicide bombers had carried out the attack. In November, the Syrian army backed by other fighters recaptured the Shaer gas field in central Homs province, a week after ISIS militant had overran parts of the installation, killing some 350 army troops and loyalist fighter, as well as gas plant workers. ISIS has targeted oil and gas facilities in Iraq and Syria as it seeks funds for its fight to seize territory for a self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate. Currently, ISIS is in control of around 11 oil fields in both countries. The fields have the production capacity of 80,000 barrels a day, according to Luay al-Khatteeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institutions Doha Center in Qatar. Described as the worlds wealthiest terror group, ISIS no longer relies on wealthy donors from Gulf states and has become financially self-sustained in both Iraq and Syria, earning $1 million a day from black market oil sales alone. The returns of oil trade contribute to the expansion of recruitment of these extremist groups. (AFP, Al-Akhbar)
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:15:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015