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SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 5, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 21 strikes in 25 engagements in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed an ISIL tanker truck, two oil stills and three oil storage tanks.

-- Near Ayn Isa, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed an ISIL pump jack and an oil wellhead.

-- Near Idlib, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike destroyed an ISIL tank.

-- Near Raqqa, 15 strikes engaged five ISIL tactical units; destroyed 11 oil tanker trucks, three oil storage tanks, three tunnels, two fighting positions, two oil pumpjacks, a vehicle and a command and control node; and damaged three supply routes.

Strikes in Iraq

Bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 11 strikes in 38 engagements in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Haditha, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike destroyed an improvised explosive device factory.

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb.

-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed three watercraft, a vehicle bomb, a barge, a vehicle, an unmanned aircraft and an artillery system; and damaged 18 supply routes.

-- Near Qaim, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle and a mortar system.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Coalition Strikes Target ISIL in Syria, Iraq > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ... - Department of Defense

Key points:

As the Mosul operation has intensified, food security has deteriorated for IDPs, returnees and resident households in surveyed sub-districts.

Over 40 percent of households in Telafar had poor or borderline food consumption and used negative coping strategies in December. Most of the households interviewed were recent returnees.

Access to the Public Distribution System remains very poor in conflict-affected areas and among displaced families.

Situation Update

As the Mosul offensive continues, IOM reports that an estimated 132,000 people have been displaced by the ongoing military operations, which began on 17 October. More than 1 million people are thought to remain cut off from humanitarian assistance in Mosul city. Around 114,000 people are sheltering in camps and emergency sites to the south and east of Mosul city but these facilities have almost reached their maximum capacity. Government and humanitarian actors are responding urgently to increase camp capacity and humanitarian assistance.

Military encirclement and the destruction of bridges connecting the east and west banks of the Tigris river are of growing concern as they affect access and supply routes to the western side of the city, where an estimated 750,000 people reside. UNHCR reports that in the west of Mosul supply routes have been cut off and the prices of basic necessities have surged, particularly for fuel and food. However, it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information from Mosul city. WFP has increased the coverage of mVAM to include the city, which will be reported on in the January mVAM bulletin.

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Iraq - mVAM Bulletin #24: January 2017; Returnees to Telafar liberated areas face rising food insecurity - Reliefweb

Middle East Eye

US dividing Iraq from Syria with border air strikes against IS Middle East Eye The United States has recently been targeting Islamic State militants in the desert region on the Iraq-Syria border in an effort to re-separate the two countries. The campaign has resulted in the killing of civilian farmers and nomads. Pan-Arab daily ...

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US dividing Iraq from Syria with border air strikes against IS - Middle East Eye

Iraqs southern crude oil exports dropped in January from a record high a month before as the country implements output cuts agreed by OPEC and other major producers to curb the global glut. The nations exports decreased 187,000 barrels a day to 3.323 million barrels a day in January from the previous month, according to a person familiar with the matter, who did not want to be identified because the data is not public, Bloomberg reported. Shipments in January from the South Oil Co. were 3.278 million barrels a day and exports from the North Oil Co. 45,000 barrels a day, the person said. Iraqs exports from the south had risen to a record average of 3.51 million barrels a day in December, Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said last month. OPEC and 11 other oil producing countries including Russia agreed late last year to cut a combined 1.8 million barrels a day of output for six months starting from January, with Iraqs share set at 210,000 bpd. Some analysts have expressed doubts on whether Iraq would deliver its share of the cuts, potentially undermining the drive to rebalance the market and drain inventories bloated by two years of unfettered production that helped to crash prices. During the months of negotiation that led to Novembers OPEC agreement, Iraq had insisted repeatedly that it should be exempted from cuts as it battles the so-called Islamic State insurgency and rehabilitates its oil industry after years of war and sanctions. The country also disputed the data to be used in any discussions, insisting that numbers compiled by OPEC underestimated Iraqi production by about 5%. Iraq ultimately agreed to reduce its output. The Arab nation was close to implementing its share of the agreed production cuts and would be in full compliance by the end of the month, al-Luaibi said on Jan. 23. The N0.2 OPEC producer had already reduced output by 180,000 barrels a day and would cut another 30,000 bpd soon, the minister said in a Bloomberg television interview.

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Iraq's South Oil Exports Decline - Financial Tribune

LONDON Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore has extended a deal with Libya's state oil firm to be the sole marketer of one third of the country's current crude oil production, sources familiar with the matter said.

It was not clear for how long Glencore would continue to have exclusivity over the output and whether some parts of the deal would be renegotiated.

The deal extends Glencore's dominance over rivals such as Vitol and Trafigura in handling barrels from the North African country for a second year running.

A spokesman for Glencore declined to comment. Officials at Libya's state-owned National Oil Corp. (NOC) also declined to comment.

Libya has struggled for years to end a crippling blockade of its oil ports amid a civil war and Islamic State intrusions. Between security fears and erratic supply, refiners eventually stopped attempting to buy from the North African country.

With a dwindling revenue stream, NOC needed an intermediary that was comfortable managing the risks, able to market the oil globally and pay cash upfront for the cargoes.

Glencore snapped up the opportunity in September 2015 to resell the only relatively stable onshore output - from the Sarir and Mesla oilfields loaded at the country's easternmost Marsa el-Hariga port. Libya's small offshore production also continued.

Since 2015, the trader has been the only company able to buy Sarir and Mesla crude output directly from Libya's NOC and is expected to continue as NOC has largely finalised its 2017 allocations.

Libya's production has recovered to around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) and NOC hopes output will rise to 1.2 million bpd by the end of the year.

"It is a big mosaic at the moment, but Glencore has kept a large chunk of the trade," one of the sources said.

Glencore's deal entitles it to around 230,000 bpd from the Sarir and Mesla oilfields, the sources added. It also regularly delivers crucial refined fuel as Libya's refining system operates well below capacity. Glencore trades about 4.4 million bpd of crude and refined products.

Vitol and Petraco have also been picking up cargoes but on a small scale, and producers with stakes in oilfields in the country such as Total, Repsol, OMV have returned to loading tankers, as have buyers such as Unipec, the trading arm of China's state-owned Sinopec.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Mark Potter)

LONDON Royal Dutch Shell is seeking to sell its stake in the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), an offshore oil and gas joint venture, in what would mark the company's effective exit from Denmark, three banking sources said.

SINGAPORE Singapore Exchange has held talks with Saudi Aramco on a secondary listing, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, after the oil and gas company suggested last week it would likely simultaneously list on more than one exchange.

OSLO Hit by the oil industry recession, Norwegian offshore service vessel (OSV) operators Farstad Shipping, Deep Sea Supply and Solstad Offshore announced plans to merge on Monday to counter the downturn.

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Trading giant Glencore extends major Libyan oil deal: sources - Reuters