Strike at the root of ISIS

In mid-2014, during the battle of Mosul, Iraqi security forces recovered more than 160 computer flash drives from a suburb. The analysis of these drives revealed the most sensational information about the ISIS. It showed that ISIS leaders were obsessive about record keeping. On one hand, there were detailed information and nom de guerre of its key leaders, it also had information about the finances of ISIS. Everything was worked out to the smallest details. Till date, no one was sure as to how much assets this rogue group had but once the flash drives were unearthed it was not a secret anymore. 

A brief accounting showed that during its peak, ISIS had a GDP of over $6 billion and total cash assets of more than $2.5 billion. As per FATF report of 2015, ISIS got these precedes from the looting of banks, oil sales, taxation, extortion, antique sales from occupied archaeological sites, kidnapping, donations from Middle Eastern countries and fundraising through its network as well as foreign fighters. The assets were primarily kept in the form of dollars and bullion bars. 

With over 1.5 lakh fighters, they were controlling almost 40 per cent of Iraqi territory and more than half of entire Syria in 2014. Soon, these boundaries expanded outside these territories. They established strongholds in Libya, Sinai Province of Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Chechnya, Philippines and Palestine. With the control over commercial hubs like Mosul and Raqqa and of Turkey and other Middle Eastern nations, ISIS grew like a monster. 

After the large-scale violence, the coalition forces came into action and started to hammer the group in Iraq and Syria. Soon, it lost its territories and over 70 per cent of its fighters. I would like to mention that over 30 per cent of the fighters were from foreign countries. 

ISIS leaders were wise enough in managing their assets or money. Despite such a victory, coalition forces could not get much of its treasure. ISIS anticipated the action and hence prepared in advance. Much before the fall of Mosul, they mandated currency dealers in Iraq, Turkey and Syria to exchange Iraqi dinars, Syrian pounds and ISIS currency into US dollars as well as gold bars. They then used their hawala network in Turkey to siphon off these dollars out of the war zone. 

A large part of the assets was in the form of gold which was smuggled to Turkey and kept with their sleeper cell operatives so that the same can be used for the future operations and re-building the organisation. In Jan 2017, when Turkish police was investigating an attack on a nightclub, they found that more than 100 safe houses have been established in Istanbul city itself. They subsequently raided one such house and recovered $500,000 in cash. 
It is assumed that a significant part of ISIS fortune is kept at scattered places in Turkey in the form of Gold or US dollars which is in the process of being siphoned off to other countries.

Since keeping the assets for long may lead to the expenditure or loss, ISIS derived one more strategy and that was to invest it in legitimate businesses across the globe. As per a report by RAND Corporation, ISIS took help of its loyal tribal leaders and businessmen across the globe to invest this money to buy firms, car dealerships, hotels, hospitals and invested in other businesses too. There were inputs that these sums were transferred to some of the legitimate businesses run by its sympathisers in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. This process started when coalition operations against ISIS had not even started.

After the fall of Mosul and Raqqa, which was much anticipated, ISIS dispatched its leftover foreign fighters back to their own regions. The world assumed that ISIS accepted its defeat but I feel that there is another horrifying aspect to this. ISIS had been building their financial structure in these areas for long and with the arrival of these fighters back in their own zone, there are chances that ISIS may start its activities there. 

We may celebrate that the group had been defeated, but there is a lot more to worry as the zones like Middle East, Afghanistan, Xinxiang of China, Chechnya, Morocco, Libya etc have started showing signs of Islamic extremism and acts of violence are frequent now. Though black flags of ISIS are not seen but the terror activities reveal that they are well funded and meticulously planned. 

We must understand that ISIS had been known to deliver most unexpected things. 

The manner in which they captured territories in Iraq and Syria and forced the government forces to shed their uniforms, weapons and equipment’s to run away with fleeing refugees can be replicated in these zones of the world as well. Europe is already showing signs of lone wolf attacks, Asia is burning too as we recently saw major standoff in Marawi of Philippines.

The world needs to understand that while we crack down on terrorism militarily, it is extremely important to cut their financials too to avoid any future implications. 

The author is a veteran of an elite unit of Armed Forces, having a keen interest in defence, internal security, strategy and international relations