Suspected ISIS Attack on Oilfield in Eastern Syria Kills Ten Workers

Ten workers were killed on 30 December in an attack that reportedly wounded four others in the Al-Taim oilfield in Syria’s eastern city of Deir Ezzor, Syrian state media reported.

“Two others have been wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted three buses transporting workers from Al-Taim oil field in Deir Ezzor,” SANA reported, despite other reports suggesting that the attack left four wounded.

According to Syrian Oil Minister Bassam Tohme, the bus which was targeted “was hit by a missile.”

Although Syrian authorities and media outlets have not provided specific information on who carried out the attack – while no group has claimed responsibility – the director of the opposition-linked, UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Rami Abdulrahman, has pinned the attack on “cells of the Islamic State group.”

“The attack began with explosive devices that went off as the buses drove by, and then the group’s militants shot at them,” Abdulrahman told AFP.

The attack came just one day after the US-backed Kurdish militant group, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), launched Operation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt, an anti-ISIS offensive aimed at clearing out the group’s militants from areas in which they have been most active. A few days earlier, ISIS militants attacked an SDF-run prison complex in the northern city of Raqqa, killing six Kurdish militiamen.

As a result, 52 suspected ISIS members were detained by the SDF on 30 December in the northeastern cities of Hasakah and Qamishli.

“The American occupation, through its mercenaries and terrorist groups, wants to cut off the available oil part that secures the minimum needs of the Syrian people, and therefore they carried out this blatant attack,” Tohme was quoted to have said in a telephone interview with Syria’s state television channel.

The oil minister’s comments echo what many have come to believe – that the US presence in Syria aims to deplete the country’s natural resources and prevent the Syrian state and population from benefitting from their oil reserves.

Tohme’s words also suggest that the attack – which falls in line with US interests – was carried out with the knowledge and approval of Washington. The US, which claims its ongoing occupation of Syria aims to protect oilfields from falling into the hands of ISIS, has been accused of this on many occasions.

Throughout the war in Syria, the US coalition has attacked Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers as they were engaged in clashes with ISIS, reinforcing such speculations among the Syrian population.

Despite ongoing calls for its withdrawal by Damascus and major international powers such as Russia and China, Washington has expressed a complete reluctance to end its illegal occupation of Syria.