Beyond hampering the mobility of the Islamic State by going after these modular refineries, the United States and its Arab allies are striking directly at one of the main sources of Islamic State funding, oil. More than half the Islamic State's financial resources come from these makeshift refineries, potentially amounting to daily revenues of more than $2 million. The strikes near Kobani, on the other hand, seek to halt the Islamic State's largest and most dangerous offensive in Syria, in which jihadist fighters are pushing to within kilometers of the Kurdish town and threatening thousands of civilians. An estimated 150,000 refugees have already been forced across the Turkish border.
Meanwhile, the effects from the first night of missile attacks and airstrikes are still being felt across Syria. The Islamic State has certainly suffered considerable damage from the intense attacks and has reportedly lost hundreds of fighters in the process. The militant group, however, was able to somewhat minimize the damage of what could have been a far more crippling strike by dispersing its forces in anticipation of the U.S.-led attacks. Before operations began, the group's leadership had gone into hiding, its supplies had been distributed into smaller depots and its fighters had been mostly deployed on the front lines or interspersed among the civilian population.
Other Militant Groups Unprepared
However, the al Qaeda cell that refers to itself as the Khorasan Group clearly did not anticipate that it would be one of the targets of U.S. airstrikes. A wave of missiles struck the group's residential facilities in Aleppo, located alongside the main al Qaeda franchise in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra. The attacks reportedly killed the leader of the cell, Muhsin al-Fadhli, as well as some 50 other fighters from the Kohrasan cell and Jabhat al-Nusra. Jabhat al-Nusra also lost one of its key combat leaders, Abu Youssef al-Turki, who was known for running a sniper school in Idlib.
As a result of the strikes on Jabhat al-Nusra, numerous rebel groups in Syria have expressed outrage that the United States targeted one of their key allies but not the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Unlike the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra has continued to maintain very close ties to Salafist rebel groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and has even actively coordinated and participated in joint operations with Free Syrian Army outfits. Abu Musab al-Maqdisi, who is one of the leaders of Jabhat al-Nusra, vehemently denounced the airstrikes, allegedly suggesting that the primary enemy is the United States rather than the Islamic State.
For its part, al Assad's government continues to warily monitor the United States and its allied Arab air operations in Syria. The United States has reassured the Syrian administration — especially by using Iran as an intermediary — that it would not be targeted in attacks in spite of the fact that the United States and its allies are keen to see the government fall. Al Assad, therefore, has elected to continue maintaining a militarily passive stance toward the airstrikes, claiming the attacks are part of a coordinated campaign with Damascus, despite U.S. statements to the contrary.
The strikes on Jabhat al-Nusra shifted the group's perception of its susceptibility to U.S. air operations over Syria, and it has begun to disperse its forces to reduce its vulnerability. Indeed, even Salafist groups that were not initially targeted, such as Ahrar al-Sham, have decided to evacuate their key bases and disperse their forces to avoid the potential reach of U.S. strikes. In the short term, at least, this disruption to some key rebel groups in Syria will benefit al Assad because the rebels will be too busy reorganizing themselves to effectively continue their operations against loyalist forces.
