No more checks in the checkbook for you, ISIS
[ARA News] DAMASCUS – The U.S.-led coalition bombed a cash storage facility for the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadi group in the city of Mosul in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh province, a U.S. defense official confirmed on Monday.
The airstrike, in which some 900-kilogram of bombs were used, hit the facility, destroying millions of dollars worth of cash, the official said.
“We estimate in the millions of dollars… from all their illicit stuff: oil, looting, extortion,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
ISIS is considered the richest terrorist group in the world, with large oil revenues, beside imposing taxes on people in areas under the group’s control and collecting ransoms from families of hostages in order to fund its daily operations across Syria and Iraq.
The radical group’s revenue from oil production used to reach more than $45 million per month. However, the amount has recently decreased due to the intensified airstrikes.
United States and allies have recently stepped up airstrikes on ISIS’s financial resources in the region. The Pentagon said in a statement that the coalition’s strikes have caused “significant damage” to ISIS’s ability to fund itself.
According to local activists, the terror group makes most of its money from taxing, oil sale, kidnapping, ransoms and the sale of antiquities.
Two 2,000-pound bombs destroyed the site quickly. But the longstanding impact may be even more significant. The officials said the U.S. plans to strike more financial targets like this one to take away ISIS's ability to function as a state-like entity. |