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Beirut • The U.S. military and two Arab allies on Wednesday bombarded a dozen small-scale oil refineries in eastern Syria as part of an expanding campaign to cut off key sources of financing and fuel for the Islamic State, according to the Pentagon.

U.S. fighter jets and drones, alongside warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, struck the refineries in remote parts of the Syrian desert one day after a larger wave of airstrikes targeted Islamic State training sites, ammunition depots and command centers in the country, U.S. military officials said. Wednesday's operation is part of a broader strategy to sever supply lines and transportation corridors connecting Islamic State strongholds in Syria and Iraq, the officials said.

Industry experts estimate the Islamic State group produces between 25,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil a day, earning as much as $1 million daily.

Attacks on the refineries came on a day in which U.S. military forces also reported hitting an Islamic State convoy in Syria near the Iraqi border, and Syrian opposition groups reported heavy bombardment in areas near Turkey. American planes also carried out four airstrikes in Iraq, U.S. officials said.

Iraqi state television reported that two raids by U.S. planes mistakenly hit Iraqi army forces and killed 75 soldiers in Saladin province. But it was not possible to confirm the report on Wednesday evening with Iraqi or American officials.

Islamic State fighters are waging a two-front war in Iraq and Syria, seeking to expand the boundaries of their self-declared caliphate, or state ruled by strict Islamic law. The group is accused of widespread atrocities in both countries, and the beheadings of at least three Western hostages.

Despite widespread resentment of the extremists in Syria, the expansion of strikes against Islamic State has been met with mixed reactions in Syria. After more than three years of war, Syrian residents and rebels have expressed frustration that the intervention is not targeting President Bashar Assad's government, with some even holding small scale demonstrations Wednesday against the coalition strikes.

Eight Islamic State vehicles were hit in an airstrike northwest of the border town of al-Qaim, U.S. Central Command said. Syrian opposition activists said the coalition strikes occurred near Boukamal, where Islamic State drove out other rebels in July after seizing the al-Qaim border crossing. Islamic State bases and checkpoints were also targeted later in the day, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said.

The organization also said several aerial attacks were carried out near Kobane, a border town with Turkey that has been the site of intense battles between Islamic State fighters and militias from Syria's Kurdish region in recent weeks.

Moustafa Oniedi, a Kurdish activist in Marj Ismael, about two miles from Kobane, said there were strikes south of Kobane but that they did not hit active fronts with Islamic State militants. Still, in an area where the radical fighters' offensive has displaced tens of thousands of people, the intervention was met with enthusiasm.

"The strikes triggered a lot of joy," he said. "People were clapping, chanting and dancing in celebration because the Americans are hitting the region and they believe that the U.S. came to their rescue."

More than 130,000 refugees fled to Turkey to escape the battles before Turkish authorities closed the border. Hundreds more refugees fled on Wednesday.

Elsewhere there were small-scale protests. A video purporting to be from Kafranbel town in Idlib province, an area not controlled by Islamic State militants and known for its liberal anti-government opposition, showed a small group of demonstrators taking to the streets.

In another scene from the town, captured in a photo, the town's activists held up a sign reading "Americans! If you don't topple Al-Assad now, don't boast about democracy."

This reflects the sentiments of many members of the Syrian opposition who see Assad, not the Islamic State, as the main enemy.

Another video posted on social media from the Idlib town of Kafr Tkharam showed a small crowd chanting, "the people want the Islamic State," and "down with the Western-Arab coalition" in reference to Obama's allies in the military campaign.

"Of course the Syrian Coalition has welcomed the international coalition to join us in our fight against extremism," said Monzer Akbik, a member of the Syrian political opposition group. "There should be advancement on the ground by the Free Syrian Army to liberate those areas."

Further muddying the picture are the U.S. strikes against the so-called Khorasan group, which is embedded with Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked group that has popular support in Syria. Some 50 Nusra fighters were killed in a strike on Tuesday, rebels said.

The group was pulling out of its bases on Wednesday, said Ali Bakran, a rebel commander with a brigade linked to the relatively moderate Free Syrian Army. He moved to Turkey from Idlib after the airstrikes began. He said they had taken the decision in order to prevent civilian casualties.

"People are so angry," he said. "For a long time they have been caught between Islamic State and the regime. Now they are caught between Islamic State, the regime and the United States and their coalition's strikes."

In Iraq, Islamic State fighters have been pushed out of some towns but have managed to make gains against Iraqi forces in other areas, despite a U.S. bombing campaign that began on August 8. The extremist group said in a statement on Wednesday that it killed around 300 soldiers in an attack on an Iraqi army camp in the western province of Anbar on Sunday.

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Whitlock reported from Washington. Washington Post staff writer Loveday Morris and Post correspondent Suzan Haidamous in Beirut, Post correspondent Daniela Deane in Rome and Post staff writer William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.

bc-islamicstate (TPN) —

French president says hostage killed in Algeria

United Nations • French President Francois Hollande has confirmed the killing of a French hostage in Algeria. A video released by a U.S. terrorism watchdog showed Algerian extremists allied with the Islamic State group decapitating a hostage after France ignored their demand to stop airstrikes in Iraq. The group, which calls itself Jund al-Khilafah, said after abducting Herve Gourdel on Sunday that he would be killed within 24 hours unless France ended its airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq. The French government has insisted it will not back down. Hollande told reporters Wednesday that the hostage was cruelly "assassinated" because he was French and because his country was fighting terrorism and defending human liberty against barbarity. He spoke on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Gourdel was a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice and was snatched by militants while hiking in the North African country.

The Associated Press