US official: Islamic State eyeing oil targets beyond Syria stronghold
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WASHINGTON - Islamic State is looking at potentially vulnerable oil assets in Libya and elsewhere outside its Syria stronghold, where the militant group controls about roughly 80 percent of the oil and gas fields, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
The official said the United States was carefully examining who controlled oil fields, pipelines, trucking routes and other infrastructure in places that could be vulnerable to attack. Those include in Libya and the Sinai Peninsula, the official added.
"They are looking at the oil assets in Libya and elsewhere. We'll be prepared," the official said.
The United States has estimated Islamic State was selling as much as $40 million a month of oil, which was then spirited on trucks across the battle lines of the Syrian civil war and sometimes farther.
