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Russia detects 12,000 Daesh oil tankers near Turkey

Friday, 25 December 2015 10:36 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 25 December 2015 11:22 PM ]

The screen grab, taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on December 25, 2015, shows oil tankers smuggling oil from territories held by Daesh terrorists in Syria and Iraq to Turkey.

Russia says it has spotted some 12,000 tankers and trucks that are smuggling oil from territories held by Daesh terrorists in Syria and Iraq to Turkey.

“The [aerial] imagery was made in the vicinity of Zakho (a city in Iraq's Kurdistan region). There were 11,775 tankers and trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi border,” Chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department Lieutenant General Sergey Rudskoy told journalists on Friday.

“It must be noted that oil from both Iraq and Syria come through this [Zakho] checkpoint,” Rudskoy added.

According to the official, the terrorists are changing oil trafficking routes to avoid Russian air raids in Syria, but Turkey remains their final destination.

"They are changing logistics and laying new routes for crude oil smuggling to avoid Russian airstrikes," Rudskoy said, stressing, “However, despite a considerable diversion, the finishing point of the trafficking route remains Turkey.”

He further noted that some 2,000 oil tank trucks belonging to Daesh have been destroyed since the start of Russia’s anti-terror operations in Syria in late September.

Over the last week, Russian strikes have destroyed 37 oil extraction and processing facilities used by terrorists, as well as 17 convoys that transported oil products, Rudskoy added.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Daesh tankers transport around 200,000 barrels of oil per day.

The airstrikes in Syria have diminished the terror group’s revenue from illegal oil trade from $3 million to $1.5 million per day, the ministry said.

Moscow has repeatedly said it has evidence Turkey is involved in the smuggling of oil from areas held by Daesh in Iraq and Syria. Ankara has strongly rejected the allegation.

Daesh has seized parts of Iraq and Syria, where it carries out the bulk of its activities. It has been engaged in bloody acts of terrorism against people of all communities in the areas under its control.

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