The U.S. and Arab allies unleashed a new round of airstrikes against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria late Wednesday, targeting a dozen small oil refineries.
U.S. officials told Fox News the latest round of strikes was designed to hit so-called "modular oil refineries" -- essentially small, ISIS-built refineries that the terror group uses to fuel its vehicles and to fund its operations.
"This is not going to look like the oil fields burning in Iraq," one official said, referring to the Gulf War.
A Department of Defense official said ISIS made roughly a $2 million a day profit from the modular oil refineries, which produced 300 to 500 barrels a day.
Officials said all the aircraft made it back safely from the strikes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and two activist groups told the Associated Press that at least four oil installations and three oil fields were hit around the town of Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. A third activist group loyal to the militants confirmed the reports.
The Observatory also claimed that the strikes killed at least 14 militants, as well as another five people who lived near one of the refineries in the northeastern Hassakeh province. The Observatory added that those five were likely the women and children of the militants.
The planes came "with a terrifying sound and red lights before the explosions," one activist wrote, documenting each explosion.
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