The United States and Russia are going after ISIS' oil industry, aiming to break the terrorists' biggest source of income. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. military conducted a second wave of attacks on (parked) ISIS oil tankers in Syria on Sunday, Nov. 22, but the attack fell short of its goal:
"The goal was to destroy every truck there. They ran out of ammunition before they were able to do that. But the desire was to destroy every single truck there,"said Army Col. Steven Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS.
At a news briefing on Tuesday, Warren played video of the ISIS fuel tankers being bombed or shot with machine gun fire from the air. Warren said all the trucks were targeted, but the video just shows"the good shots that you'd like."
As was the case with an earlier U.S. strike on ISIS fuel tankers, the Americans dropped leaflets warning the truck drivers that an attack was coming, so the tankers were not moving.
Warren called the air strikes"another example of the type of accuracy that we're capable of here in the coalition."
A total of 283 fuel trucks were destroyed by American planes on Sunday:"A bomb would have been from an A-10, and then when you saw the guns, you know, the machine gun fire, that could either have been an A-10 or AC-130 Spectre Gunship."
"It's not a movie where you kind of fly along and just strafe, and you know, the trucks blow up. No, it's -- they struck each truck, or groups of two or three trucks. It is a machine gun, so there is a certain area aspect to it, right? You know, the gunfire isn't laser guided...So it's individual strike a truck, or two or three trucks; move to the next batch, strike them; move, strike; move, strike.
"So the goal was to destroy every truck there. They ran out of ammunition before they were able to do that. But the desire was to destroy every single truck there."
Combined with an earlier U.S. strike on ISIS fuel tankers, the U.S. military has now destroyed 399 of them, but Warren would not say how many are left:"I'm not going to tell you the total number of trucks out there...but we've still got a long way to go on trucks,"he said.
Warren also disputed Russia's recent claim that it had attacked and destroyed 500 ISIS fuel tankers in the"same general region"last week.
"From what we saw, the battle damage assessment they issued seemed to be exaggerated. More than likely the Russian attacks did not produce the results that they claimed it produced."
Warren said the U.S. estimates that Russia destroyed only around 100 tankers.
Source: www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/us-planes-left-isis-fuel-tankers-unharmed-because-they-ran-out-ammunition

Warren, you guys aren't competing with Russia na, do your work jare.

They won't have ammunition when they get to D tanks. Mtcheww

The US is not stupid to bomb its asset(ISIS) out of existence and will look for ways to preserve it. Same thing with Boko haram and al-cia-da. They are useful and willing tools for the US to project her power against un cooperative govts around the world. The US and the west are the real terrorists.

Lies with passion. You bombed 250 tankers, and you can still peacefully cross from Turkey to your mock targets in Syria, lol?
The real bombing was done by the Russians, and that is why Turkey, so furious, have to stab Russia on the back, as they are no longer benefiting as such from the illiicit oil dealings.

Appleyard:
Lies with passion. You bombed 250 tankers, and you can still peacefully cross from Turkey to your mock targets in Syria, lol?
The real bombing was done by the Russians, and that is why Turkey, so furious, have to stab Russia on the back, as they are no longer benefiting as such from the illiicit oil dealings.

True talk. US and their lame excuses.