In the long, grinding war on radical Islamic terrorism, itap important to note the occasional bit of good news. So here’s some: The putative Islamic State is bleeding cash.
In some demonstrable ways, the U.S.-led coalition of nearly 70 countries is hurting the Islamic State badly on this front. And if that effort succeeds in wresting the Iraqi city of Mosul from the terror group, the financial loss would be crippling.
We applaud the news.
According to by the London-based International Center of the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, and the accounting firm Ernst & Young, revenue collections for the Islamic State have dropped by about 50 percent in the last two years.
The review found the delusional caliphate’s loss of territory, due to the U.S.-led coalition’s success in fighting the group, “has severely undermined the group’s finances, leading to a dramatic decline of income.”
Whatap more, researchers say, is that if current trends continue, the “Islamic State’s ‘business model’ will fail.”
Yes, terrorists have shown again and again that money isn’t always whatap needed to pull off devastating attacks in world cities far from their base. But a loss of battlefield cash for a group that wants to spread and maintain its grip is a hugely important victory.
While gaining exact figures on the rogue group is understandably difficult, researchers scoured publicly available data about Islamic State finances, including leaked Islamic State documents, congressional testimony, government reports, news articles and other sources. They found that since the Islamic State announced itself as a caliphate in 2014, the group’s finances hit a high of about $1.9 billion. In 2016, the group collected between $520 million and $870 million, researchers say.
The big early gains came as the Islamic State spread its reach in Syria and Iraq, controlling property, oil fields and whole cities of people it could tax — as well as prey on in far more intrusive ways. The group also raises cash from controlling oil fields, looting from banks and businesses, collecting on the sale of antiquities and from donations from like-minded groups. (Older terror groups, like al-Qaeda, rely more on donations.)
The biggest hit to the Islamic State’s revenue stream came after the coalition launched Operation Tidal Wave II in October of 2015. The “tidal wave” that resulted meant attacks on the infrastructure from refineries to tanker trucks.
We hope that those vulnerable to the Islamic State’s slick recruiting efforts take heed. A common theme in recruiting pitches is that life is so much better on the other side: that the land inside the caliphate is like promised land to the faithful.
But the reality is the illegitimate caliphate, which acts more like a ship of pirates, can’t keep its own thing going. Stealing and forcing others into supporting it through taxes without representation are catching up with the Islamic State.
Letap hope the coalition’s good work continues apace.
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