MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - The U.S.-led international coalition fighting ISIL has not been efficient either in Syria or in Iraq, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry Department for New Threats and Challenges Ilya Rogachyov has said.
"I do not deem them to be efficient either in Syria or in Iraq. The territory ISIL is controlling in Iraq has not shrunk as a result of the air strikes the coalition has been delivering for over a year. The number of militants has grown," Rogachyov has told Interfax in an interview.
"We think that the recoupment of losses ratio [I believe this is what it is called in military language] is larger than one. I mean more people are joining than ISIL loses in the hostilities," he said.
ISIL financial capacities "have definitely grown over the recent year," the department director said.
He also pointed to the enlargement of ISIL oil produce. "Experts assessed [the output] at about 30,000 barrels a day a year ago and now they speak of about 50,000, which is a conservative and credible estimate," he said.
"So, what have they been bombing? The air superiority which is not questioned by anyone or anything should have had an impact on such things as crude exports. The coalition's Air Force is not efficient by these parameters," Rogachyov said.