MESOP FOCUS : ISIS, Jabhat a-Nusra vie for control of Deir e-Zor oil fields

The Islamic State in Iraq and a-Sham claimed Wednesday to have seized control over two oil and gas fields in eastern Deir e-Zor province from al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat a-Nusra. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, reported that ISIS had withdrawn and Jabhat a-Nusra insisted it retained control of the fields. The fields lie outside of the Deir e-Zor town of al-Basira on the Euphrates River, 10 kilometers southeast of the city of Deir e-Zor and 30 kilometers west of the Iraqi border.

ISIS, Jabhat a-Nusra and other rebel groups have leveraged control of Syria’s eastern oil fields to sell crudely refined oil to finance their operations. On Sunday, Iraqi army helicopters struck an ISIS convoy of eight trucks inside Syria, saying the transnational extremist group was ferrying the oil to ISIS vehicles in Iraq’s western Anbar province.