US-led airstrikes target Syrian gas plant

The US-led coalition's airstrikes have targeted the major gas plant in Syria, RIA Novosti reported, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The international coalition has for the first time struck the entrance and prayer area of the Koniko gas plant. It is under IS control, and is the largest in Syria," director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahman said Sunday.

The strike "did not kill any jihadists, though it did injure some of them," he added.

Koniko plant is considered to be the biggest gas plant in Syria, providing supplies to the Jander Power Plant in Homs.

Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama revealed a strategy to defeat the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group that has established control over vast territories in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate on all of the captured territories. US plans include the formation of an international coalition, aimed at fighting IS militants. The coalition is comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, together with Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. The airstrikes on Iraq were later joined by the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Belgium. In an effort to halt the ongoing conflict, the United States also plans to provide equipment and training to Kurdish and Iraqi forces and Syria's moderate opposition.

The United States expanded its operations against the Islamic State (IS) to Syria on September 26, launching airstrikes on areas controlled by IS militants. The US has been carrying out airstrikes against the IS on Syrian territory without any formal permission from Damascus.