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American and Western security officials have warned of ISIS’s ability to return again, despite the defeats it has suffered, due to the financial reserves and income it still has, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The organization owns a group of companies and assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the Middle East and Central Asia, according to government officials and records.
Officials said the group continues to extort money from local residents in places where its sympathizers are present and receives income from businesses that were seized during his rule, in addition to its income from human trafficking.
The international coalition had managed to defeat the organization and kill its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, liberating the Iraqi and Syrian cities it controlled and depriving it of many of its sources of income from oil sales, tax collection, and local banks that it seized.
Circumstances exist
Last month, Gen. Frank McKinsey, in charge of the US Central Command, said: “The basic conditions that allowed ISIS to emerge are still in place.”
US officials believe that indicators of the organization’s financial soundness heighten fears that ISIS will continue to fund attacks for at least the years to come, and concerns rise with Washington’s announcement to reduce its military presence in Iraq.
After escalating attacks in recent months, the US Defense Intelligence Agency recently warned that ISIS has fertile ground to regain lost strength, and some US officials question the ability of local authorities in Iraq and Syria to repress the group.
And the multinational financial group to fight ISIS, last month, said in a statement: “The terrorist group remains determined to regroup and engage in acts of violence against coalition partners and the local population wherever its cells are. Their networks are present all over the world. ”
The United States Department of the Treasury estimates that the organization’s reserves may reach 300 million dollars, while the United Nations has announced that it is estimated at 100 million dollars at least.
Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which advises the US government, said: “The group has a lot of infrastructure and arsenals. It still maintains caches in Iraq for weapons, bombs, motorcycles and other things necessary for the attacks.”
US government advisers confirmed that documents recovered by coalition forces after the fall of ISIS showed that the organization was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in legitimate businesses, including hotels and other real estate, and indicated that investigators are working to identify companies and close them through sanctions.
Your sources of income
In terms of its sources of income, U.S. counterterrorism officials said that tobacco smuggling is one of the organization’s sources of income, controlling a share of the tobacco market in Afghanistan and Pakistan worth hundreds of millions of dollars. .
The organization also sought to exploit the Corona pandemic and trade in protective materials, as investigators found that a businessman affiliated with the organization in Turkey sold target masks and other personal protective equipment on the Internet, and launched campaigns on social media. to raise funds for the families of the fighters living in the Al-Hol camp near the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Officials indicated that the organization was transferring money from the former strongholds of the Islamic State in eastern Syria to Dubai and through Turkey.
Officials have also warned that the group will not use cryptocurrencies to collect and smuggle money. “Cryptocurrencies are a huge loophole for ISIS and other terrorists. Unless governments step in and further regulate this sector, it is difficult if not impossible,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, former United Nations sanctions coordinator. Detecting the final beneficiaries with certainty “.
