Quote Originally Posted by CrowBat View Post
Just to make sure I understand what you say, Slapout: 'destroying Daesh refineries' (cough) - either needed by Syria in the future or run by local Arabs to earn money to survive - and plenty of empty buildings is 'Ring 2' and therefore 'strategy'...?

But, cutting off the supply of that oil to the regime in Damascus and black market (including Daesh supporters) in Turkey - not?
Crowbat,
I will try to answer your questions as best I can since I only have access to open sources.

1-They(USA) are trying to degrade the income producing capability of ISIL and only ISIL (not Syria in general) at this time.This will put pressure on the organization as a whole as it will degrade their capability to pay/support their soldiers and personnel. This may change in the future but for now that is what they are trying to do.

2-Often when they hit a so called empty building it is because they want to deny any future usage to the enemy.

3-Some of the targets you ask about are ring#5 targets (Fielded Forces) they will get to these but for now they are going after targets that degrade the organizations ability to regenerate long term. And they are trying to do this with precision so they don't create any more future cost of repair then they have to.

Hope this helps, anymore questions feel free to ask.