WHEN Islamic State burst out of Syria in June 2014, seizing Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and nearly reaching Baghdad, it became the richest terror organisation in history. It plundered the banks in Mosul, including the Central Bank, whose vaults contained an estimated $425m. It snaffled a pipeline network filled with 3m barrels of oil. Its self-declared caliphate included some of the best agricultural land in the Fertile Crescent, and the heavy industry that Saddam Hussein had concentrated in loyal Sunni Arab areas. A report compiled for Reuters in October 2014 lists 13 Iraqi oilfields, three refineries, five cement plants, some big wheat silos and a salt mine.
In Syria IS found a captive market for the oil from the 160 fields it had seized. Syria’s government is a customer. So, too, are other rebel groups and even some aid agencies operating in the north, says Rim Turkmani of the London School of Economics, whose report says American taxpayers are inadvertently helping to fund IS. “They control the bulk of Syria’s oil,” says Ludovico Carlino, author of a new report for IHS, a consultancy, “so whether you’re a militia, a...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1NkyiEl
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