DAMASCUS: The United States and its Arab allies bombed oil facilities operated by militants in Syria to choke off their funding, killing more than a dozen militants and several civilians.

France meanwhile launched new air strikes on 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) militant group, broadening the campaign they launched this week beyond military targets to economic assets.

Over 50 nations have joined US-led coalition against IS, with more countries promising concrete military support

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.

Militants 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 on Thursday.

The strikes against the oil refineries killed 14 militants 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 militants 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 on Friday on following suit.

“The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Mr Obama told the UN. “Today I ask the world to join in this effort.”

The IS group has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a “caliphate” and 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.

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.

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 on Thursday it would send arms to Kurdish forces battling the militants.

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 militants 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.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2014