KEY HIGHLIGHTS
16th November 2015, Defense Ministers of the United States and France agreed on modalities to strengthen anti-ISIL campaigns in Syria following the multiple Paris terrorist attacks.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and French Defense Minister Jean-Yves le Drian agreed to step up joint military operations to defeat ISIL.
ISIL claimed responsibility of the Paris attacks an act that has been condemned by world leaaders. On his statement the French President Francois Hollande described attacks as “an act of war.”
France has been conducting airstrikes against Daesh positions in Iraq and Syria since 2014 as part of a US-led coalition.
OIL TRUCKS DESTROYED
Meanwhile, U.S. has launched series of attacks destroying hundreds of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) oil trucks in Syria.
The ramped military offensives hit the militant’s trucks during the aerial raids destroying 116 oil trucks near Deir al-Zour, an area controlled by Daesh militants close to Syria’s eastern border with Iraq.
The airstrikes were carried out by four warthog A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships based in Turkey as reported by New York Times.
The A-10s warplanes dropped two dozen 500-pound bombs and conducted strafing runs with 30-millimeter Gatling guns. The AC-130s warplanes attacked with 30-millimeter Gatling guns and 105-millimeter cannons inflicting heavy losses on Daesh economic lifeline.
US reconnaissance drones had closely monitored where the Daesh oil trucks were assembled. As many as 1,000 trucks were waiting to be loaded with illicit cargo of oil when US conducted the raids destroying one-third of them.
