U.S.-backed fighters take key Syria oil field

This July 30, 2017 photo, shows an oil field controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Rmeilan, Hassakeh province, northeast Syria.
This July 30, 2017 photo, shows an oil field controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Rmeilan, Hassakeh province, northeast Syria.

BEIRUT -- U.S.-backed fighters captured Syria's biggest oil field from the Islamic State extremist group Sunday in an area coveted by pro-government forces allied with Russia and Iran.

Kurds and Arabs fighting under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the al-Omar oil field in the Deir el-Zour province in a "swift and wide military operation" after charging about 60 miles through the desert and launching a surprise assault, according to U.S. military and Syrian Democratic Forces officials. Some militants took cover in oil company houses nearby, and clashes were underway late Sunday.

The al-Omar oil field was a major source of income for the militant group and is considered one of Syria's most productive. It was taken without "significant damage" to the oil facilities there, according to a statement issued by Liliwe Abdullah, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The surprise assault was intended to leave the militant group no time to sabotage the oil field's infrastructure, as it typically does when retreating from important areas, said Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S. military.

[THE ISLAMIC STATE: Timeline of group’s rise, fall; details on campaign to fight it]

Dillon declined to say whether U.S. special operations forces deployed in Syria had participated in the operation.

"We put our forces where they need to be to support our partners," he said.

The field's capture gives the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces control over a vital strategic asset that could give it leverage in any future negotiations over the status of Kurds in Syria. It could also fund the fledgling autonomous region they are building in northeastern Syria.

After coming under heavy fire from the Islamic State, pro-government forces retreated from the area around al-Omar field, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Syrian Democratic Forces said government forces were 2 miles away from the fields.

Syrian troops, backed by Russian warplanes and Iranian-sponsored militias, have retaken nearly all of the provincial capital of Deir el-Zour, as well as the town of Mayadeen, another Islamic State stronghold, which is across the Euphrates River from the al-Omar field.

The Syrian Democratic Forces focused their operations in rural Deir el-Zour on the eastern side of the river, and have already seized a major natural gas field and other smaller oil fields.

The Islamic State captured al-Omar in 2014, when the group swept across large areas in Syria and neighboring Iraq. At the time, the field was estimated to produce around 9,000 barrels a day. Its current potential is unknown.

Syria had proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels as of 2015, giving it the largest supply among its neighbors after Iraq. The oil industry was a pillar of the Syrian economy before the conflict in 2011.

As the Islamic State advanced in Syria, it seized control of most of Syria's oil fields and made petroleum a major earner for the militant group, which sold it on the black market to other insurgents and the Syrian government.

Since the coalition began operations against the Islamic State in 2014, the militants' oil production has been reduced from a peak of approximately $50 million per month to currently less than $4 million, the coalition said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The government first lost the al-Omar field to other insurgents in 2013.

CLAIM CHALLENGED

Al-Manar TV, operated by Lebanon's Hezbollah, said the fight for al-Omar was still underway and denied the Syrian Democratic Forces' claim to have captured it. The militant group fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

The official Syrian news agency said troops regained full control of Khosham, a town on the eastern side of the Euphrates River that they lost a day earlier to the Islamic State. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said parts of the town remain contested.

It's not clear how Syrian troops will respond to the Syrian Democratic Forces' seizure of al-Omar. Assad has vowed to eventually bring all of Syria back under government control.

Syria observers have said the race between the U.S.-backed fighters and the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government forces is likely to be a source of direct confrontation in the absence of a political agreement.

The two sides have accused each other of firing on their forces in Deir el-Zour province, but a rare face-to-face meeting of senior U.S. and Russian military officers last month appeared to have calmed tensions.

The Islamic State has suffered a series of major setbacks in recent months, including the loss of the Syrian city of Raqqa, once the extremists' self-styled capital, and the Iraqi city of Mosul. Most of the territory the group once held has been seized by an array of Syrian and Iraqi forces.

An estimated 6,500 Islamic State fighters remain in eastern Syria and western Iraq, many concentrated along the Euphrates River valley straddling the border, the U.S. military said last week.

The next major prize for both sides is the town of Bukamal, which straddles the highway linking the Iraqi capital of Baghdad to the Syrian capital of Damascus. If pro-government forces gain control over the border town, they would enable Iran to reopen a vital land route between Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Beirut, deepening its strategic reach into the heart of the Middle East.

The United States and its Syrian Democratic Forces allies are also planning to advance toward Bukamal, where the Islamic State has now concentrated its forces, Dillon said. First, however, they will have to clear and consolidate their hold over the large area that was seized Sunday.

"Our mission is to defeat ISIS," he said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State. "Our priority was the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa, and now that defeat has happened. [The Syrian Democratic Forces] have made this very quick sprint down to al-Omar, and they have to reinforce that area. The offensive operations on Bukamal will be difficult and will take a lot of forces."

Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb of The Associated Press; and by Liz Sly and Zakaria Zakaria of The Washington Post.

A Section on 10/23/2017

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