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SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 18, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

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

Strikes in Syria

Coalition military forces conducted 15 strikes consisting of 19 engagements against ISIS targets in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed an oil wellhead.

-- Near Bab, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

-- Near Shadaddi, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions, a tactical vehicle and a weapons cache.

-- Near Raqqa, seven strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; damaged a bridge , and destroyed 70 oil barrels, three oil storage tanks, three fighting positions, two oil refinement stills and a weapons storage area.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, four strikes destroyed five oil wellheads.

Strikes in Iraq

Coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of 35 engagements against ISIS targets in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike destroyed an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building and a fighting position.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; damaged 11 supply routes; suppressed five mortar teams and an ISIS tactical unit; and destroyed eight front-end loaders, four excavators, three watercraft, an ISIS-held building and a barge.

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 ISIS vehicle is a 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 ISIS 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 ISIS terrorist group and the threat it poses to Iraq, Syria, the region and the wider international community. The destruction of targets in Syria and Iraq further limits ISIS' ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS in Syria, Iraq > U.S. ... - Department of Defense

BAGHDAD Iraq's oil reserves have increased to 153 billion barrels, from a previous estimate of 143 billion barrels, Oil Minister Jabal al-Luaibi said on Sunday.

Iraq will ask the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to adopt the new figure as the official estimate for its reserves, he said in a statement.

The increased estimate is the result of appraisals and exploration carried out at seven oil fields in central and southern Iraq, he said.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Mark Potter)

MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will review his minister's order to close more than half the country's mines for environmental violations, following an outcry from affected producers.

DUBAI Iran expects its oil production to reach 4 million barrels per day by mid-April, and plans to drill 500 new wells over the next five years to raise output to 4.7 million bpd, a senior oil official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

SHANGHAI China will suspend all imports of coal from North Korea starting Feb. 19, the country's commerce ministry said in a notice posted on its website on Saturday, as part of its efforts to implement United Nations sanctions against the country.

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Iraq's oil reserves increase to 153 billion barrels, oil minister says - Reuters

Iran has resumed electricity export to Iraq after it halted supply in the beginning of the year, according to a Friday report by Mehr News Agency. The report purported that supplies are back to normal after the government in Baghdad paid $350 million as part of its debt for power imports from Iran which has piled up to $1.3 billion. Reportedly, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Tehran last week for talks with power officials that culminated in the resumption of electricity export to the neighboring Arab country. According to an unnamed official at the Energy Ministry, the contract to sell power to Iraq has been renewed until the end of 2017. The official did not give details of the new contract. "Based on the terms of the contract, if Iraq's Energy Ministry fails to repay its debts, power export will be discontinued again," the official added, noting that Iraq is obliged to open a letter of credit to pay for the power it imports." Arash Kordi, managing director of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), said last month that the power export deal between the two governments expired at the end of 2016, refuting claims that Iran had cut supplies due to Iraq's mounting debt. Iran's Energy Ministry said last year that Iraqi authorities had agreed to repay the debt by paying $100 million per month. However, the payments ended hardly after three installments. A spokesman for Iraq's electricity ministry, Mus'ab al-Mudaris, confirmed in January that the last $100-million payment was made in May "but since then no further payments were made." According to reports, Iran had previously cut power supplies to Iraq in April 2015 because of unpaid dues. But exports returned to normal several weeks later after Baghdad pleaded with Tehran to resume supplies as the country faced day-long power outages which had led to nationwide protests. War-ravaged Iraq is grappling with a chronic shortage of electricity that has caused lengthy blackouts and mass protests against its government, particularly during the hot summer season when electricity demand for cooling soars. The country also depends on Iranian gas to feed three power plantsRumaila, Shattal-Basra and al-Najibiyahto partially offset the blackouts. Iran is the largest exporter and importer of electricity in the Middle East and exports electric power to Armenia, Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan, especially during periods of peak demand. Azerbaijan and Armenia supply electricity to Iran under a swap agreement.

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Iran Reportedly Resumes Electricity Export to Iraq - Financial Tribune

Defense Officials Say Mosul Operations Restart; 85 Killed in Iraq

The Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that troops began advancing on western Mosul. Officials warned the estimated 800,000 residents living there by dropping informative leaflets on the western neighborhoods still within Islamic State control. Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones, a British deputy commander, believes capturing west Mosul will take more than 100 days. The capture of east Mosul, which was expected to be easier, took over three months.

At least 85 were killed and 84 more were wounded:

In Mosul, a jet bombed a medical building that the Coalition claimed is being used by ISIS/Daesh. The Coalition reported killing 24 militants; however, Daesh claimed 18 civilians were killed and 47 were wounded. Without independent journalists in the city, it is impossible to know who is telling the truth. It is even possible that both sets of figures are correct.

Three women were killed and 10 others were wounded when a drone dropped explosives on a market in Mosuls Hayy al-Intisar neighborhood. A Katyusha rocket attack in Hayy al-Jazair left four civilians dead and nine wounded.

In the Tal Afar region, militants attacked militiamen stationed in several villages. Fifteen militiamen were killed, and 12 more were wounded. Twenty militants were killed.

A bomb killed one person and wounded three more in Madaen.

An I.E.D. in Sharqat killed one militant and wounded three more.

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Defense Officials Say Mosul Operations Restart; 85 Killed in Iraq - Antiwar.com

President Trump is spending his third consecutive weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, arriving Friday evening in advance of the campaign-style rally he has scheduled Saturday. The meaning of membership at the luxurious property is the subject of a Saturday feature from one of Trump's media arch-nemeses, The New York Times, which examines the unique circumstances of the "Winter White House":

Historically, of course, American presidents have often been rich men with mansions, who sometimes conducted the people's business in weekend haunts of the wealthy ... But Mr. Trump's weekend White House appears to be unprecedented in American history, as it is the first one with customers paying a company owned by the president, several historians said.

"Mar-a-Lago represents a commercialization of the presidency that has few if any precedents in American history," said Jon Meacham, a presidential historian and Andrew Jackson biographer. "Presidents have always spent time with the affluent," he added. "But a club where people pay you as president to spend time in his company is new. It is kind of amazing." [The New York Times]

Most Mar-a-Lago memberships predate Trump's entrance into politics, and the club only accepts 20 to 40 new members per year, each of whom must be sponsored by a current member. The entry fee is currently $200,00 it has doubled since Trump's election plus $14,000 in annual dues. "It enhances [membership] his presidency does," the Mar-a-Lago's managing director, Bernd Lembcke, told the Times. "People are now even more interested in becoming members. But we are very careful in vetting them."

Trump's middle child, Eric, in an interview "rejected suggestions that his family is offering access to his father and profiting from it," pointing out that the wealthy and well-connected do not need to join the Mar-a-Lago if they wish to lobby the federal government. To presume unethical motives in the president's fondness for conducting state business at his resort "assumes the worst of us and everyone," Eric said, "and that is unfair."

Read the full Times profile here. Bonnie Kristian

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In Mosul, a divided Iraq in microcosm - The Week Magazine