At least 36 dead in bombing raids in eastern Syria—monitor

In this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, Russian Tu-22 bombers escorted by the Su-27s fighter jets drop bombs on a target in Syria. Russia’s defense minister said its warplanes have fired cruise missiles on militant positions in Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo provinces. The ISIS group has positions in Aleppo province; Idlib has the presence of the Nusra militant group. AP Photo/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service

BEIRUT, Lebanon—At least 36 people were killed Friday in air strikes by Russian and Syrian jets on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)-controlled Deir Ezzor province, a monitor said, describing them as the heaviest in the region since the start of the war.

READ: Russia, France push UN resolutions on fighting ISIS

“At least 36 people were killed and dozens more injured in more than 70 raids carried out by Russian and Syrian planes against several districts in Deir Ezzor,” Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group told AFP.

He described the raids, which targeted several large cities and smaller towns in the province and three oil fields, as “the worst bombardment of the region since the start of the uprising in 2011.”

READ: French, Russian raids in Syria kill 33 IS jihadists in 72 hours

The province and most of the provincial capital is held by ISIS militants, with the exception of the military airport and a few areas controlled by the regime.

The US-led coalition fighting ISIS said Monday it had destroyed 116 fuel trucks used by the jihadists in eastern Syria, in one of the largest raids in weeks.

ISIS reportedly makes millions of dollars in revenue from oil fields under its control, and the coalition has regularly targeted oil infrastructure held by the group.

An investigation by British newspaper The Financial Times last month estimated the jihadists reap some $1.5 million a day from oil, based on the price of $45 a barrel.

Russia, which is also stepping up its own air campaign against ISIS, on Friday unleashed cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea at targets across Syria for only the second time since it started bombings in September.

Moscow fired 18 missiles from ships in its Caspian Sea fleet at seven targets in the Raqa, Idlib and Aleppo provinces, defence minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.