Oil sales, extortion, theft produce ‘massive’ terrorist finance challengd
Islamic State fighters sending a video message / AP
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The Islamic State remains one of the most well-armed and well-funded terrorist groups in the world, raking in over $1 billion in revenues last year and capturing up to $50 billion in Iraqi weapons, according to a State Department security report.
“ISIL’s sophisticated military skill and brutality has been key to its success in Iraq and Syria,” states an Oct. 19 report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council.
“However, its ability to generate cutting-edge propaganda to promote its ideology and gain sympathizers and members across the globe, added to its largely self-reliant, robust financial system, has contributed heavily to its success as well.”
ISIL, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is an acronym for the Islamic State, as are ISIS and IS.
Russian military intervention is the latest twist in the five-year-old Syrian conflict where the Islamic State “remains a violent, capable force,” the seven-page security report states.
Foreign nationals continue to join the group, spurred on by sophisticated Islamic State propaganda and recruitment efforts through some 46,000 Twitter accounts used by members and sympathizers.
“Halting the flow of foreign fighters is incredibly difficult,” the report says, noting that travel bans imposed by western countries have not been effective at curbing foreign fighters from joining the group who can easily enter Syria.
The report provides a detailed breakdown of the group’s income, which comes primarily from sales of oil, extortion and ransom, seized bank assets, taxation, artifact smuggling, and agricultural theft.
Last year, the Islamic State raised $100 million from oil trafficking from seized oil facilities in Syria and Iraq. The amount is expected to decrease slightly this year because of the decline in oil prices on international markets.
U.S. airstrikes have targeted oil transportation networks, the report said, noting that Turkish government efforts to stem oil smuggling across the Turkish-Syrian border.
According to the report, the terrorist group’s revenues for 2014 included between $500 million and $800 million in seized state-owned bank assets, $20 million to $70 million from taxation of controlled territory, $100 million in oil revenues, and $25 million to $45 million from kidnapping and ransom.
Theft of agricultural products brought in between $10 million and $50 million last year, and border tariffs imposed by the group raised between $10 million and $50 million. Funds from smuggling of artifacts could not be estimated, according to the report, but private estimates have put the figure at “tens of millions.”
Those figures do not include a more modest sum—up to $40 million—that the Islamic State received from foreign donors in the Persian Gulf, including financial backers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, as well as some in Europe.
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