Islamic State takes Syrian government’s last oilfield, reports say

Islamic State fighters have seized the last major oilfield under Syrian government control during battles over a vast central desert zone, a group monitoring the conflict has said.

The Jazal field has been shut down as fighting continued east of Homs, with casualties reported on both sides, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday, without giving dates or further details.

Syria’s army said it had fought back an attack in the same area but did not mention Jazal or comment on how much of the country’s battered energy infrastructure remained under its influence. It said it killed 25 fighters, including foreign jihadis.

“The regime has lost the last oilfield in Syria,” said the observatory, which tracks violence through a network of sources on the ground.

Commentators on social media said fighting had surged in the past two to three days and Isis had taken the oilfield on Sunday.

Jazal is a medium-sized field that lies to the north-west of the rebel-held ancientcity of Palmyra, close to a region that holds Syria’s main natural gas fields and multimillion-dollar extraction facilities.

The army, which has been fighting to retake the city and surrounding areas since May, had managed to secure the oilfield’s perimeter in June.

The observatory also said US-led coalition bombing raids in areas in the militant’s de facto capital of Raqqa had killed at least 16 militants, including five foreign jihadis.

Islamist insurgents bombarded the heart of the Syrian capital Damascus and mortars killed at least one civilian and wounded scores, state television said.

The Guardian