Donald Trump says IS has taken over oil ports in Libya
Donald Trump said again on Tuesday that the Islamic State has “taken over” oil supplies in Libya, though the terror group appears never to have controlled the country’s oil nor had the ability to profit from it.
A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon.
The GOP presidential candidate at a Virginia Beach town hall on Tuesday implied, as he has said overtly in the past, that ISIS is funding itself with vast oil wealth from Libya. Trump praised the value and quality of Libyan crude oil generally before saying it’s controlled by the murderous, self-proclaimed caliphate.
“You know who’s got a lot of that oil right now? ISIS,” he said of Libya’s crude oil supplies. “ISIS now is all over Libya, and they’ve taken over the oil.”
ISIS has attacked oil fields in the North African country, but a number of experts who follow the terror group have pointed out that it does not have the ability to operate the handful of refineries that exist there. Militants claiming loyalty to ISIS were focused on disrupting Libya’s oil operations, rather than trying to run them.
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