The so-called Islamic State group (IS) wants to expand its self-proclaimed Caliphate from Syria and Iraq to other parts of the Middle East,North Africa and even Europe. How will this be funded? Does IS maintain a budget? Yes, or at least the militant group – also commonly referred to as Isis and Isil – claims as much. In January 2015 a tribal leader in Mosul briefed the London-based media outlet Al-Araby al-Jadeed that IS’s first budget had been approved. Up to $2bn had been recorded for expenditure. This $2bn figure corroborates with later disclosures from US intelligence officials. They claimed to maintain viewed ledgers kept on 160 flashsticks, or raided from the domestic of IS “paymaster” Abu Hajjar in May this year. Outgoings Experts at the US think-tank Rand Corporation maintain been analysing the financing of terror groups in Iraq for eight years. They identify IS’s biggest cost as fighters’ salaries. Delivering a speech in July,a US Treasury source claimed “Isil has plenty of money”, citing $360m as the yearly cost for fighters. What makes this challenging to verify are the widely varying number of militants in Syria and Iraq. The CIA revised its estimate of 10000 IS fighters upwards to 31000 […]
Source: channel4.com