LONDON: Islamic State (ISIS) is banking as much as $3m (£1.98m) a week from
oil sales to smugglers and the local market as US and British air strikes attempt to destroy the infrastructure that allows Daesh (IS) to pump and refine crude in its strongholds in eastern
Syria.
Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS) at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank in London, said that the
oil produced by IS was either being trucked across the border to
Turkey, sold to the regime of Bashar al-Assad or sold to Syrians living under IS rule.
The
oil is being smuggled into
Turkey or not, targeting IS infrastructure remains the only feasible way for the anti-IS coalition to cut funding for the terrorist group in
Syria. IS makes most of its money either by selling
oil, extorting money from its population through taxes and, on a far smaller scale, selling historical artifacts and cigarettes outside of its territory.
"The only real source of funding that the international community has any reasonable control over is the
oil. So bombing the
oil facilities seems like the only solution when it comes to disrupting their finances. (Source: IB Times)