BEIRUT: The Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS has seized Syria’s main oil and gas fields in Deir al-Zor province bordering Iraq, as regime forces pressed ahead with gains near the city of Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based anti-regime group, said “ISIS took control of the Tanak oil field, located in the Sheiytat desert area in the east of Deir al-Zor.”
Earlier the same day, the jihadists seized the major Al-Omar oil field.
They have still not captured the tiny Al-Ward field, which produces barely 200 barrels of oil per day and is in the hands of a local tribe, Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman said.
ISIS seized Tanak and Al-Omar after rival fighters from the Nusra Front and other rebel groups withdrew, said the Observatory.