Russia Decimates ISIS Oil Infrastructure with Biggest Bombing Raid in Decades, Missile StrikesBy Jay Syrmopoulos Over the last 48 hours, Russia has destroyed an Islamic State controlled oil refinery, a fleet of 500 ISIS controlled oil tankers used to smuggle oil out of Syria, and launched a massive sea-based cruise missile attack. On November 20, the warships of the Caspian Fleet launched 18 cruise missiles at seven targets in the provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo. All targets were hit successfully, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir Putin. There were 10 Russian warships that took part in the operation, six of which are in the Mediterranean. Over the past four days, Russian air forces have conducted 522 sorties, deploying more than 100 cruise missiles and 1,400 tons of bombs of various types, Shoigu said. He added that in a single strike on a target in Deir ez-Zor, utilizing multiple cruise missiles, more than 600 militants were killed. Earlier in the week, the Russian air force undertook one the most massive, and complex heavy bomber missions in modern history. In a clear escalation of the air war, 25 Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack bombers went on a coordinated, long-range air raid against alleged ISIS forces in Syria. All three types of Russian bombers can fly thousands of miles while carrying more than 20 tons of weaponry. Only the United States and Chinese possess similar heavy warplanes. Russia is focused on destroying the terrorists economic base, having targeted 15 oil storage and refinery facilities as well as 525 oil trucks, according to Shoigu. We stopped supplies of 60,000 tons of oil per day to the black market and terrorists are losing $1.5 million daily, Shoigu said. The fact that the Islamic State is making mountains of cash selling oil indicates that they are selling the oil to some entity. It would seem like an easy calculation to determine exactly what person, group or state is buying this oil. In fact, that information seems to be readily available. According to journalist Pepe Escobar, writing for RT: Turkish Socialist party member Gursel Tekin has established that Daeshs smuggled oil is exported to Turkey by BMZ, a shipping company controlled by none other than Bilal Erdogan, son of Sultan Erdogan. At a minimum, this violates UN Security Council resolution 2170. Under the light of Putins message of going after anyone or any entity engaged in facilitating Daeshs operations, Erdogans clan better come up with some really good excuses. This information only barely scratches the nefarious relationship between The Islamic State and Turkey. According to respected international security scholar Nafeez Ahmed, writing in Insurge Intelligence: A senior Western official familiar with a large cache of intelligence obtained this summer told the Guardian that direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking ISIS members was now undeniable. The same official confirmed that Turkey, a longstanding member of NATO, is not just supporting ISIS, but also other jihadist groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria. The distinctions they draw [with other opposition groups] are thin indeed, said the official. There is no doubt at all that they militarily cooperate with both. Shoigu made note that the number of aircraft taking part in the Syrian anti-terror operation has recently been doubled, and stressed that Russia was coordinating with French forces in the region, per President Putins orders, even if the U.S. continued to refuse to cooperate with the Russian forces. Jay Syrmopoulos is an investigative journalist, free thinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jays work has been published on Ben Swanns Truth in Media, Truth-Out, AlterNet, InfoWars, MintPress News, as well as many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu. Just referencing the headline. To decimate means to destroy 10%, not totally destroy. The word has changed its meaning over several thousand years; today its common meaning is to destroy a large part.. Merriam defines it as to destroy a large number. Did in the time of the Roman Empire, not any more Just to be clear, the original concept of decimate meant to destroy such that the enemy was left with 10% of its forces, that is, to reduce it by a factor of ten. If one destroys 10%, as you have written, that would leave them with 90% left over, which is a setback but hardly dramatic. I understand and appreciate the conversation. I just think people use it because it sounds really cool and almost scientific. I find nothing reflecting your original concept. Where is this written? Hi Breakneck, Im not sure thats true, but I think there is probably a word for what youre describing. As has been mentioned here in other posts, the original meaning stemmed from Roman times and has been used all the way through French Army practice in WW1. It was a general term for a form of collective punishment in Army units, usually at the the company or battalion level, to execute every tenth man if the unit had shown cowardice or mutiny. In some armies, some men drew lots and were forced to pick the 10% of the men so that they would forever carry the shame of their action rather than feel lucky. Its a fascinating subject frankly. As with many other matters of etymology, its difficult to conclusively prove word origins one way or the other. And its probably even harder to convince everyone of ones contentions. Either way, I have always found etymology to be a fascinating study, and Im pleased to find others here who are willing to contribute. Me too, my friend. Yes! Finally, someone understands that we have not been mis-using the word all this time. It simply means to cause something to be reduced TO one-tenth of its former strength (or size, or numbers); at least that definition is consistent with the words historical usage. The modern confusion has arisen probably due to the words (Latin) root decimus which means tenth. Original use is not necessarily historical use, because we have periods and regions in history and ethiology while does not change for the words, linguistics records and study the changes in the usage of words. Decimate is what Romans did to their own army when it failed. They would kill every tenth soldier to encourage them to be successful. The French army did the same to their own soldiers in WW1 whenever they did not show enough fighting spirit. Trotsky did it to the Russians fighting the White army at the time, ushering in the Red terror and the Soviet Union which were to come and the death of 60 to 65 million Russians, slavs cossacks, Tarters, volga Germans, ect.. while he would read a book ISIS Can continue pumpingoil and refining it, but without tankers, destroyed all ny Putin, the oil and gasoline go no where, except for ISIS Japanese made Toyotas and American made Hommies. decimate I just feel like its a cool word and very specific word that was misused for so long by so many that it now officially means more stuff. Sounds like a good move for the Russian oil industryLOL And a bad deal for ISIS oil industry. Something wrong here. Russia with their firepower should have finished the battle against IS in 2 weeks. Theyre not all in the same place. Theyre mobile and fluid. Its not as easy as it seems. But you do make an interesting point, worthy of consideration. The spiritual center of ISIS is where it is. In and out, all of them in one way or another are mercenaries. No oil, no money no cause. They will not disappear but will fade out and have the same fate of the IRA, the ETA and other revolutionary movements in the world, but worse because will have no homeland to fight for. This is easy to say if you want to kill 500,000 civilians in 2 week and being critizised as was critizised Bill Clinton for massacre of Serbians in the 90s (collateral damage was his defense). However, having cut the supply lines at Turkey and have blocked the entry of Al Queida of Lybia at a port in Turkey was easier to do without collateral damages.The Turkey border was declared free fly zone forcing the Russians to use very expensive long range missiles. Took more than 2 weeks but the arteries and blood of ISIS were cut with the destruction of the oil tanker trucks of Erdogans brother. The problem now is the human shield that US put among the so called moderates that include Al Quaeda of Syria (Al Nursa). Next step is to close the circle by Assad at the west, Hezbollah at the south, Iran and Iraq (Shiha Muslims) at the east and the Kurds at the north, even if US does not move out its human shield. I have estimated that with the support of the French and Russian air forces ISIS will be swept in one week after it is left without supplies and money. Thereafter comes the unified autonomy of the Kurdish territory in Syria and Irak (Putin and Assads compensation to the Kurds for the assistance against, and punishment to, Turkey), the governance of the Syrian territory by Assad and the governance of the Iraqui territory by the Syrian, the expelling of Turkey from NATO, and an international criminal court for the survivors of ISIS leadership and soldiers of all ranks, for Erdogan, for Obama, for Hillary Clinton, for Barak Obama, for Victoria Nulan and for George Bush, listing ambassador Stevens as post-mortem defendant in absentia. Then allow the family of those killed victims and survivors of the massacre in France to sue Turkey for for have been facilitators of the terrorist attacks on 11/13/2015 to take Turkey into bankcrupcy to be sorry for have dared to be part of the New World Order and puppet of the CIA and Wall Street There could be plenty of oxigen in the air but without blood one dies. This is what Putin did to ISIS, leaving it without blood, without the oil infrastructure. No wells, no refinery and no trucks to smuggle the oil and its products by the Turks into the international and local markets. No blood oil and money for ISIS. Turkey must be expelled from the NATO, be ordered by the to pay restitution to Syria (and see if US dare to veto the resolution), separated from Turkey its Kurdish territory (the seed for a unified free socialist Kurdistan) and be considered a target for bombing by the NATO due to what Turkey did to France by supporting ISIS, using the rule that an attack to a member is an attack to all (and see again if US dare to oppose the bombing of the new Ottoman empire. Yeah, THATS really gonna happen. Im not buying any more Turkish taffy or gummy bears. Thats about all the impact I can make as an individual. As individual not only you can stop Turkish taffy and gummy bears. You can spread with you voice and pen that the problem are not the Syrian refugees but the New World Order which with its hawkishes wants to lead us to WW III. Read more on this website. Glad to see that there is one leader left in the world who knows (and cares) how to lead. Glad for Vlad! GOD BLESS RUSSIA AND PUTIN. Suck on that Obama, you piece of crap. Put me on the no fly list, I give a crap. Amen, when I get on the no fly list, then I will have achieved something. Tptb can suck my d__k Why wasnt ISIS wiped out in the early stages? According to international law, the Syrian government had every right to invite Russia to militarily intervene. The moment of assault came after ISIS has been fully trained and sent out to Western countries. This is the perfect set up for the metastasizing of the global war on terror. Dont forget, the FSB (current acronym for KGB) carried out false flag attacks in Russia, for which, whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko was murdered with radioactive polonium for revealing. Its Hegelian, the international bankers always control all sides. Its become quite obvious why Putin has an 80%+ approval rating amongst the Russian people. Aside his flaws, above all else he is a patriot, resolute, confident and with a positive plan for his country the very antithesis of Barack Obama. Oh, how long the next year will appear to be as Obama unleashes one unconstitutional outrage after another on the American people. To those who voted for him, youll suffer many of the consequences of errant executive actions along with the rest of the country. Flaws? next to hussien the Insane, Mr, Putin is a saint ! Putin is an intelligence analyst, not a saint. He went to a religious school but was trained by the KGB not to be a saint but to serve humanity, not just the Soviet state. Oh, Obama has a plan, all right. Obama has no plan. The New World Order has a plan for him envisioned by Malthus at the end of the XIX Century: POPULATION REDUCTION. I am talking about WW III. The problem is not Obama, but the New World Order and the CIA, for what JFK paid with his life. The choices were McCain and Romney, but not better choices. Obama has no guts because he still prefers to go in to history as a bad president than as a dead one, as did Lincoln and Kennedy, both opponent to the British intelligence and the New World Order. May be Obama can change his mind and be our sacrificial lamb. Do not believe that Hillary or Trump, Carlson, Rubio, Cruz, Graham, et al. can do better to avoid WW III, what ISISI is all about. The only non hawkishes are Sanders and OMalley. However, I do not know if they prefer to go into history as dead presidents. Hip, Hip, Hooray for RUSSIA!!! Thanks a million Russia, Dont forget about the ones here in america. Putin is taking care of ISIS militants in Russia and Syria but it is a problem of America to take care of those here, many of them non Arabs, looking without beards or jibabs like you and me. Just few of them are immigrants. The persons that I most admire to this day is Putin, a real man, Trump and Ted cruz Well, Hector, ONE out of three . STILL a LOW score!!!! Even when it is your right who you want to admire, be careful with admiring Trump and Cruz because Putin is not in a contest of popularity despite of his 90+% approval by the Russians. The issue is not to kill ISIS jihadist for the sake to kill them, but to stop the destabilization of world regions bt Wall Street and the CIA to create chaos, suppress civil liberties and give wellcome to WW III and to the New World Order with 1/10 of the global population left to serve the current 0.1% You gotta love the Russians! Theyve done more to crush Islamic State than our president would ever even think of! But then, the Russians are not at all worried about what some goatherd, in Trashcanistan is going to think about them. The Russians KNOW that Islamic State is their enemy and they are going to do whatever they need to, to defeat the bastards! The geopolitical situation is more complicated than thinking that ISIS is the enemy of the Russians. The real enemy of the Russians is Wall Street and its puppet the CIA that made a coup de stat in Ukraine and almost left the Russian army with no access to the Baltic and the Atlantic, if not for Crimea; and made another coup de stat in Lybia to expand terrorism into Africa, what Gadafi and Mubarak opposed. The CIA also created ISIS. Destroying ISIS is destroying the CIA and Wall street by proxi war in reverse. O n 22 April 2013 the bastards of the EU passed a law allowing member states to buy oil smuggled out of Syria from rebel-controlled areas. That, my friends, is the root of the IS problem. Putin put missiles to end the oil smuggling where the EU put a law to legalize it. At least Russia has a leader with some balls. It is not a matter of balls but of common sense in not surrendering to the New World Order, to Wall Street, to the CIA and to ISIS, all part of the same chest game, game that Putin commands as command Judo, a martial art that uses the force of the opponent. Link the dots and help me to stop WW III by spreading the voice of common sense. While I commend Putin for doing what needs to be done, please everybody dont think that he is in any way a friend to the American people. He would have us all executed in a heartbeat. I notice a lot of Putin sycophancy lately. Just sayin Well dont be commending your would-be executioner, then. Makes little sense, unless even you dont believe what youre saying. So you saying that I cant appreciate the fact that he is taking out ISIS, yet still see him as an enemy? Are you kidding? Yea it is great that he is doing that. But I dont think for a second that he is doing it for our behalf. Do you people really think he cares about the American people? And the reason I said what I said is because I have been noticing lately people talking about Putin the way Obambi zombies talk about him. Putin cares about Russia and Russia only (which is fine, he is Russian afterall). But again, dont think for a second that the Russian military would not put the shadow gov, the public gov or the people without batting an eye. He is no savior. In fact he may just be playing his role as controlled opposition. Its all theater. And keep in mind he is a former KGB officer and is or at least was a Mason. And he is to be trusted? The fact that you see him as an enemy is a testament to the brainwashing prowess of the global elite. You think you know me or how I think? You ever hear of controlled opposition? You know like Napoleon, Hitler? Putin and Russia are not our friend. And I have not watched TV or mainstream news for 5 years so please tell me how I am being brainwashed when I do not ingest any garbage from the puppet masters (the fact that you refer to them as elite tells me that you are the brainwashed one, my friend. There is exactly ZERO things elite about them and I will never refer to them by that name). So let me ask you this. What could possibly give you the impression he cares about the American citizens? Why would he absolutely not execute every single one of us if he had the chance? Why would you possibly see him as an ally? The whole US/Russia hating each other is all part of the global kabuki show the the banksters are running. Remember Obamas hot mic incident telling Medved (sp?) to tell Putin to wait til after his last election because he will have more flexibility? So call me brainwashed all you want. I dont really care what you think of me. Refute with an actual argument instead of personal attacks or shut up and be sure to learn Russian so you can beg for your new masters love. Putin sycophanacy all around. Its as disgusting as Obamo sycophancy. THEY ARE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM. Wake up people. I am subscribed to 5 news magazines from the right, deemed to be non-mainstream media. Anyone can be brainwashed by them in the name of God or liberty, if that anyone is anti-Wall Street and anti-greed, as are the editors of the Trumpet. According to the Trumpet, Napoleon and Hitler are the last 2 emperors of the Saint Roman Empire of the Catholic Church (the beast),leaving no room for Putin to be the sixth emperor because the beast of the Apocalypse has only 5 heads. While I pay no attention to Fox News I read the local newspaper and sometimes the New York Times. I hate the Washington Post and the WSJ out of my distate for Murdoch.The Nation, the Monthly Review and others magazines give what I was unable to find at Foreign Affairs but I wish to have more time to read. If you do not believe that elites control the information that you receive it is because you think that that happens only in Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, and China. Unfortunately even happens in Sweden because the freedom of press is for whoever ouns the press and the media, whether an individual or a state. To be free of brainwashing requires a lot of will power and it is only overcome, in a great deal, by critical thinking within a preformed set of values that your own prejudices lead you to establish. However, you chose cinism, the alternative to misinformation. Read more and you will find Hillary, Obama, Rubio, Carlson, Graham, Cruz, and Trump in the Hawks team. There is not Putin. At that team are not the members of the BRICS. At that team is not Hollande, at that team is not Bernie Sanders. William Burke, you are perfectly right.The masters formed the thinking of the slave and many slaves during the civil war voluntarily chose to be slaves.Uncle Tom dis not come from thin air. If you do not think for a second that what Putin is doing is in our behalf, you are right. Putin is attacking ISIS not even out of friendship for Assad, but for No, he would only decimate our shadow govt. America just keeps on decimating brown people for the sake of their own arrogance and exceptionalism. America keeps killing all human races, not just the brown race. To mention few after WW II: Indonesians, Vietnameses, Serbians, Afghans, Iraquis, Lybians, and Syrians are not brown. Putin is attacking ISIS not even out of friendship for Assad, but for the sake of humanity, particularly the share of this held by the Russians and his allies at the BRICS (Brazil, India, China and South Africa). ISIS wants to destabilize the world, together with Boko Haram in Africa, and what is left of Al Quaeda after Bin Laden was killed, if indeed was killed (I have not seen his cadaver but I have first hand information that after 9/11 he were in a hospital in Quatar to be treated for his kidney condition, of what the CIA had actual knowledge). Putin is ready to attack US but not with nukes, with the EMP weapon. This bomb only fries circuits, not lives.He has no plans to execute any one and he is not interested in dancing with us into WW III. HUM BAYBEE!!! Put em right in the pocket! Thank you, Vladimir. American citizens owe you an immense debt of gratitude. Nicely done, man. We should have put sanctions on Erddogan ..hes probably going to be toast with his own people after this I doubt anything will happen to him, he is just a partner in crime amongst his NATO dirtbag accomplices To toast Erdogan we need a free, unified and socialist Kurdistan lead by the KWP (Kurdish Workers Party), the political force behind the moderates in Syria, not fighting Assad but fighting for a free, unified and socialist Kurdistan. That is why Erdogan and US bombed the Kurds during this past election in Turkey. Al Nursa (Al Queada of Syria) is anther puppet financed by the CIA despite of the allegedly be in the list of terrorist organizations. With ISIS, Al Nursa is being toasted by the Russians. of the CIA. The negro sodomite obama just made the Russian army stronger. The negro is just begging you arrest him. He knows he does not belong there and is waay over his head. It is not time to blame the problem to the lack of brain of George Bush or the color of the skin of Obama. It is no time to blame the Islam and the 163 times that the Quoram instruct Mohammed followers to kill the infidels. It is time to estabilise the world with the BRICS project for development and peace, with new sources of energy, but clean, and new technologies and to reduce the population at long term with education, the Vatican roulette, with anti pregnancy pills and with the termination of unwanted pregnancies via abortions but not with nukes. But you just did blame George Boosh. So the rest of your comment is suspect. No, I said that it is not the time to divert us, the racist like you and the pedants like me, from stopping WW III. It is time to use technology for peace and to avoid abortions. Read all my comments at this page and vote for Sanders. Cui bono? Ask that to Winston Churchlil, who flattened Berlin before the Soviets entered the city. Rootin for Putin..Way to go man..Thanks.. Wish the Russians would release more video, I love watching muslims die. Seeing the launching of the missiles from Russia ships 1,700 miles away was impressive as was the bombing of the oil tanker trucks belonging to Erdoggans brother. Still I am missing the destruction of the ISIS HQ but still the Russians are pondering if it worth its destruction despite the woman and children lodged in that facility as human shield. Putin is no Clinton, who attacked Belgrade despite the thousands of residents killed (not human shields) that were deemed collateral damage. Putin is more of a decent human being than 0bama is, thats pretty sad but true. I think its more likely to send commandos in under air support than carpet bombing it but he will do whatever he needs to do. As a proud American citizen and ardent supporter of all things good about America I would like to thank President Putin for doing what Americas pro-Islam and closet Muslim anti-America President Obama wont do to destroy everything the evil terrorist Islamic State evil represents. Thank Putin also for being destroying th eUS military complex and Wall Street for which you are proud, by his proxy war in reverse, initiated in Afghanistan by the CIA in the 80s, which created the Taliban and Al Quaeda, bombed the World Trade Center in 9/11, destroyed Gadafis Lybia and have Mubarak in prison and created ISIL. As citizen of this world we must be proud that Putin has put riddles to the WW III against the New World Order. Thank you for the TRUTH ret us army Good bless the Russians. I am glad for your secularism reflected in the oo (double o). Oh hey, look everyone; a typo! God bless the Russians! God bless the Russians, the Americans, the Frenchs, the Chineses, the Japaneses and the rest of the world population and I wish that protect us from Wall Street, the CIA, the malthusianism and from the puppets created by all these evils: the mudejejeens (Taliban), Al Qaeda and its affiliates, Boko Haram, and ISIS. Specially that save us from WW III. Let us get united by the BRICS against the New World Order. Most of your above, agree 100%. Afraid the Federal Reserve System is being bankrupted and bought out by the UN (another corporation). BRICs may be a viable option to this corrupt corp (Fed) and all the franchise corporations that have usurped what was once a free Land (America) one can only hope, at this point. The BRICS is no alternative to the Federal Reserve system, not even to the World Bank, but to the IMF. It is not about monetary policy but about financialization of our future away fro the the Financial Imperialism (read Monthly Review) based on the US dollar. BRICS is about development to lift the poor of the world out of extreme poverty using the resources of those more fortunate. America was not free land but the land of the Native American Indians, which was usurped by the free man from Europe and the corporations brought with them. Now the free man is paying the price of that association, as America will pay the price for supporting ISIS and the American military complex. Hopefully God will bless us all to avoid WW III and the New World Order. Could it be they half heartedly take it in turns against ISIL?, it is much too slow, and I wonder why China If electronic voting in America was banned, and Putin was on the next ballot for USA -President he would Thats true! Unfortunately, non-American borns cannot become US president, otherwise Putin would surely be a shoo-in, electronic voting or not! God Bless Czar Putin! God bless the Great leader Putin ! ret us army 