September 25, 2014 -- Updated
"I think we are in this
for a matter of years," Pentagon spokesman, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby,
told CNN Thursday. "...We are steeling ourselves for that period of
time."
The news came as U.S.-led
airstrikes hit locations overnight in a remote area of eastern Syria
where ISIS has been using mobile refineries to produce oil that brings
in up to $2 million a day for the group.
The U.S. military was
still assessing the damage to the refineries by the airstrikes, Kirby
said. The attacks are focused on the "infrastructure around the
refineries," meaning the ability of ISIS to produce oil, he said.
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Even so, there are
questions about just how much impact the destruction of the refineries
will have on ISIS, which analysts have said has access to billions of
dollars.
"Even if we stop their
oil flow today, they still have about a billion dollars in the bank,"
retired U.S. Army Col. Peter Mansoor said.
"They seized about a
third of a billion dollars from the central bank of Mosul (Iraq)." On
top of that, he added, ISIS has garnered millions of dollars in ransoms
from European governments for hostages and have traded much of their
oil.
For now, the United
States is focused on the refineries, according to Kirby. But he
acknowledged there are "other economic levers the international
community is going to have to pull" to cut off all funding to ISIS.
At least 14 militants and
five civilians were killed in the overnight airstrikes, according to
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a dissident monitoring group.
Among the targets hit
were an ISIS headquarters in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, a training
camp and several oil refineries, the group said.
ISIS targets in Iraq
were also hit Thursday morning by France's military, government
spokesman Stephane Le Foll told reporters in Paris.
ISIS leadership dispersed?
The U.S. military and
its allies have not released details about damage or possible casualties
from the strikes, saying assessments are under way.
But ISIS has likely
dispersed much of its command-and-control capabilities and leaders and
are now "mixed in with the civilian population," Mansoor said.
"So it's unlikely these
airstrikes have crippled ISIS," he said. "As the President has said,
it's going to be a long campaign, and it will be months -- perhaps years
-- before ISIS is dealt a serious blow absent any sort of ground force
to go in and root them out on the ground."
In the latest round of
strikes targeting ISIS refineries in Syria, fighter jets from Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates flew alongside U.S. aircraft,
hitting 12 locations, Kirby said.
While ISIS has been the focus of most of the strikes in Syria, other terror targets have also been hit.
The U.S. military said the al Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group was also targeted when the strikes in Syria began Tuesday morning.
And the terror group
al-Nusra Front says its leader, Abu Yousef al-Turki -- also known as
"The Turk" -- was killed. But the United States has not said whether
al-Turki is dead.
"We cannot confirm any particular leadership that might have been killed in any of these strikes," Kirby said Wednesday.
And as far as how many ISIS militants have been killed, "we don't know that, either," Kirby said.
Activist: Airstrikes won't eliminate ISIS
U.S. strikes the Khorasan group in Syria
Map: Airstrikes in Syria
International support
While the support for
the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria has been tepid, the support for the the
international coalition against ISIS in Iraq is growing.
The Dutch foreign
ministry announced Wednesday that its military will contribute six F-16
fighter jets and 250 troops to carry out airstrikes and train Iraqi and
Kurdish forces. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said his
country's parliament will weigh a request for six of its fighter jets to
take part in the bombing campaign.
Similarly, British Prime
Minister David Cameron said he's recalling Parliament Friday "to secure
approval for the United Kingdom to participate in the Iraq air
campaign.
"The U.N. Security
Council has now received a clear request from the Iraqi government to
support it in its military action against ISIL," Cameron said from U.N.
headquarters in New York. "... So it is right that Britain should move
to a new phase of action."
Activist: ISIS fighters keep low profile
An activist from Raqqa, who uses the pseudonym Maher al-Ahmad, told CNN he'd gone back to the town after the airstrikes.
"It's the first time I
didn't see ISIS in the streets, that I was able to walk around, because I
am wanted by them," said al-Ahmad, who moves between Raqqa and Turkey's
Gaziantep province.
He said people who were there during the strikes described them as feeling like earthquakes.
Some 20 to 25 vehicles
filled with ISIS fighters, including people he believes were senior
leadership because of the level of security around them, left the city
within hours of the attacks, the activist said.
ISIS fighters began
moving into the homes of civilians in the past two to three weeks,
al-Ahmad said, raising fears that the civilians may be used as human
shields or fall victim to future airstrikes.
Hassan al-Halabi, an
activist from Aleppo, voiced similar fears, saying residents there have
two main concerns about upcoming strikes in Syria.
"The first is that they
are afraid of having civilian casualties because ISIS members and
fighters are among civilians," al-Halabi said.
"And the second concern
is that what will happen after that? Who will replace ISIS, especially
that the regime is ready to take control of ISIS' areas?"
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