© Aboud Hamam / Reuters
Islamic State managed to regain access to Syrian oil fields and make profits from selling oil, a new UN report reveals. While the UN did not point fingers, the IS reemergence seems to occur in areas held by the US-backed forces.
"Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS], having been defeated militarily in Iraq and most of the Syrian Arab Republic during 2017, rallied in early 2018. This was the result of a loss of momentum by forces fighting it in the east of the Syrian Arab Republic," the
recent report from the UN Security Council's Sanctions Monitoring Team reads. The document is dated July 27, but was only released to the public this week.
The slow-down gave IS "breathing space to prepare for the next phase of its evolution into a global covert network." As of June 2018, the terrorist group has been controlling "small pockets of territory in the Syrian Arab Republic on the Iraqi border," effectively carrying on with its quasi-state ways.
"[IS] was able to extract and sell some oil, and to mount attacks, including across the border into Iraq," the reports stated, adding that the terrorist group regained "access to some oil fields in northeastern" Syria.
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