A coalition airstrike destroyed 83 oil tankers used by the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) over the weekend in eastern Syria, AFP reported Monday (August 8th).
The strike was conducted by "multiple coalition aircraft" Sunday evening near Albu Kamal, in Deir Ezzor province along Syria's border with Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Matthew Allen said.
"This strike is a component of ongoing Tidal Wave II operation designed to attack the distribution network of ISIL's oil-smuggling operation and degrade their capacity to fund their operations," Allen said.
Operation Tidal Wave II, named after a World War II mission to bomb oil refineries, has seen the coalition conduct a series of strikes on ISIL's oil infrastructure.
In just two strikes last year, coalition planes destroyed about 400 tankers that were lined up in the desert waiting to take on illicit oil.
