MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group generates huge profits by selling oil smuggled from the areas it occupies in Iraq and Syria, The Wall Street Journal reported citing experts and government officials.
"They have a stable economy, more or less, across their territory in Syria and Iraq," Hassan Abu Hanieh, an expert on al-Qaeda and the IS, told The Wall Street Journal. Earlier, the insurgent organization was believed to raise funds mainly from sponsors from Persian Gulf states, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
The militants sell light oil at $60 per barrel, which is significantly below market prices, while the Syrian oilfields alone can produce 30,000-70,000 barrels per day, according to The Wall Street Journal. IS extremists’ daily income is estimated at about $3 million, an energy analyst Robin Mills told ABC news in August.
Ransoms for hostages, racketeering, robbery and private donations are among other major sources of the radical Sunni group’s income. Back in June, the IS seized $429 million from banks in the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to local authorities, becoming arguably the richest terrorist group in the world.
The IS jihadists have deeply infiltrated local economic systems in Iraq and Syria. “At the time, no one could do any simple daily transaction or business – a truck couldn't pass down the road – without payment,” Hasan Abu Hanieh told The Wall Street Journal.
“Can you prevent ISIS [another name used for the IS] from taking assets? Not really, because they're sitting on a lot of assets already. So you must disrupt the network of trade. But if you disrupt trade in commodities like food, for example, then you risk starving thousands of civilians,” the paper writes citing an unnamed Western counter-terrorism official.
The IS Sunni insurgent group, previously an al-Qaeda branch in Iraq, has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In 2014, the militants became active in northern and western Iraq, capturing territories, cities and oilfields. In late June, the IS proclaimed an Islamic caliphate across vast parts of Iraq and Syria.
