London: In a shocking new revelation from the UK government, a report has indicated that millions of pounds of aide money to strife torn Syria could have found its way into the hands of ISIS.
According to reports, the Department of International Development, in its report regarding humanitarian aide to refugees caught in conflict, has confessed that the 'most serious risk' in its aide programme was the large scale diversion of funds, possibly to jihadis. The funds were assigned for refugees from Palestine who are now in Syria.
Though the value of these ‘diverted funds’ are put well below one percent of the total aide of £ 510 million, the sum still represents a staggering £ 5.1 million.
Reports emerging from within the Islamic State indicate that the terrorist organisation is under intense economic pressure, and have even had to sell fish in order to mitigate the depleting income from oil.
The funds were assigned for refugees from Palestine who are now in Syria.
(Photo: AP)
Security experts once estimated the ultra-radical Islamist group's annual income at $2.9 billion, much of it coming from oil and gas installations in Iraq and Syria.
The US-led coalition has targeted ISIS's financial infrastructure, using air strikes to reduce its ability to extract, refine and transport oil and so forcing fighters to reportedly take significant pay cuts.
Yet the terrorists, who seized a third of Iraq's territory and declared a caliphate in 2014, seem to be adapting again to this latest set of constraints, in some cases reviving previous profit-turning ventures like farming.
The US-led coalition has said that in addition to attacking Islamic State's fighters and leaders it will go after financial infrastructure too.
Air strikes have reduced Islamic State's ability to extract, refine and transport oil, a major source of revenue that is already suffering from the fall in world prices. Since October the coalition says it has destroyed at least 10 "cash collection points" estimated to contain hundreds of millions of dollars.
US military officials say reports of Islamic State cutting fighters' wages by up to half are proof that the coalition is putting pressure on the group.
Average pay has been cut from $400 to $200 a month. While wages for foreign fighters, which were between $600 to $800, have also been cut, it is not clear by how much, said US Army Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the international coalition.
