U.S. fighter aircraft launched seven airstrikes against ISIS in Syria on Thursday and its allies struck militant targets in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday. U.S. forces hammered ISIS fighting positions, vehicles and buildings near the besieged Syrian city Kobani, just eight miles from the Turkish border. ISIS has been battling to seize control of that predominantly Kurdish border city. The U.S. military has responded with bombings meant the slow the group's advances. A U.N. envoy has said thousands of people may be massacred if Kobani falls to the Islamist terror group.
One of the airstrikes in Syria destroyed an ISIS oil facility near Shadadi, part of an ongoing bid to stamp out the militants' ability to operate oil tanker trucks and cut off its funding, Central Command said in a statement. ISIS makes an estimated $1 million per day in sales of all its black market oil. It uses oil revenue to finance attacks throughout Syria and Iraq, military officials have said.
The military did not say which partner nations participated in strikes in Iraq near Baiji. The strikes there took out an ISIS artillery piece, ammunition storage area, a vehicle and a small unit.
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