DAMASCUS - The United States and its Arab allies bombed oil facilities operated by jihadists in Syria to choke off their funding, killing more than a dozen militants and several civilians.
France meanwhile launched new air strikes Thursday in neighbouring Iraq and pledged more support for Syrian opposition forces, upping its fight against extremists following the beheading of a French hostage.
American, Saudi and Emirati warplanes hit oil installations in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, broadening the campaign they launched this week beyond military targets to economic assets.
IS, which has imposed its brutal rule over large parts of Syria and Iraq, has been using such small-scale mobile refineries to generate up to $2 million in revenues per day, Washington said.
Jihadists seized and set fire to a cement factory in Syria owned by French construction giant Lafarge near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.
The strikes against the oil refineries killed 14 jihadists but also left five civilians dead, including a child, according to the Britain-based monitoring group.
It said foreigners from Europe, Arab nations, Chechnya and Turkey made up the vast majority of the more than 140 jihadists killed since the US-led raids began in Syria.
The latest strikes came as US President Barack Obama urged leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly to join the coalition and convinced the Security Council to back a resolution aimed at stemming the flow of foreign fighters joining IS. Belgium and The Netherlands committed warplanes to Iraq and Britain said its parliament would vote Friday on following suit.
“The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama told the UN.
“Today I ask the world to join in this effort.” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the West was responsible for “strategic blunders” that had created terror havens. The IS group has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a Muslim “caliphate” imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
It has committed widespread atrocities including mass executions of captured Iraqi soldiers, forced conversions of non-Muslims and the on-camera beheadings of Western hostages including two US journalists and a British aid worker.
Late on Wednesday an IS-linked group in Algeria which had demanded France halt its participation in strikes in Iraq posted video footage of the execution of an abducted Frenchman, Herve Gourdel.
President Francois Hollande pledged “determination, composure and vigilance” in the face of jihadi threats.
The Philippines said it would not negotiate with a militant group threatening to behead one of two German hostages unless a huge ransom is paid and Berlin halts support for the campaign against IS.
The US-led coalition has carried out some 20 strikes in Syria since the start of the week and Washington nearly 200 in Iraq since launching air raids there in early August. The raids in Syria have hit IS positions, command centres, training compounds and vehicles, in their regional stronghold of Raqa and near the Syria-Iraq border.
In New York, Obama chaired a UN Security Council meeting that unanimously adopted a binding resolution to turn back the flow of foreign fighters heading to Iraq and Syria.
It requires all countries to adopt laws that would make it a serious crime for their nationals to join jihadist groups such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al-Nusra Front, or risk economic sanctions or military action.
More than 50 nations have joined the US-led coalition against IS, including key Arab states, and in recent days more countries have promised concrete military support. Belgium and the Netherlands said they would each send six F-16 fighter bombers to take part in the air campaign in Iraq.
The Netherlands will also deploy 250 military personnel and 130 trainers for the Iraqi military, and Greece said Thursday it would send arms to Kurdish forces battling the jihadists. Britain has yet to join the strikes but Prime Minister David Cameron said parliament would vote Friday on whether to take part in the military campaign.
Nine people were arrested in London early Thursday on suspicion of encouraging terrorism and belonging to a banned extremist Islamist organisation.
There had been fears the strikes could inadvertently help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is locked in a three-and-a-half-year civil war with rebels that the UN says has left more than 190,000 dead.
The jihadists have posed the most serious threat to his regime, though Washington has vowed to arm and equip moderate rebels as part of the anti-IS campaign.
On Thursday, a Syrian security source said regime troops had managed to recapture the strategically important town of Adra near the capital that was seized by rebels in December.