SOUTHWEST ASIA –
August 7, 2020
Release No. 20200807-01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The fight against Daesh takes many forms, occurring both inside Iraq and northeast Syria, as well as around the world. The Global Coalition and its partners remain steadfast as they comprehensively target and attack the terrorist network.
Daesh revenue streams remain precarious due to its lack of territorial control, which previously afforded Daesh access to highly lucrative oil fields as well as populations and commercial enterprises it could tax and extort. Over the past three years, the Global Coalition has targeted around 30 Daesh banks and financial centers, destroying tens of millions of dollars of Daesh’s liquid assets.
The actions of the Coalition’s Counter-ISIS Finance Group (CIFG), the U.S. Government, and the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), are ensuring pressure is being maintained on ISIS’s global financial networks, restricting their ability to raise, move, and use their funds. Through the use of unique authorities, and in conjunction with partners, ISIS’s financial flows have been degraded to a trickle. At least 65 countries have prosecuted or arrested foreign terrorist fighters or their facilitators and Daesh’s financial infrastructure has been significantly constrained.
The targeting of individuals and businesses helping to transfer funds in support of Daesh operations further increases pressure on the terrorist organization across all fronts. Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the international Coalition, continue to eliminate Daesh key leaders and fighters, raid and destroy their mountain and desert hideouts, and seize weapons, explosives, and supplies needed for their survival.
The United States, in conjunction with CIFG and TFTC partners, has directly targeted multiple financing networks across the world. On November 18, 2019, the United States designated two Turkey based ISIS procurement agents and four ISIS linked companies operating in Syria, Turkey, and across the Gulf and Europe for providing critical financial and logistical support to ISIS. More recently, on July 28, 2020, the United States targeted two ISIS financial facilitators located in Syria and Turkey to disrupt their ability to continue to raise and move funds on behalf of the group.
Coalition airstrikes continue to destroy Daesh assets, removing their ability to control territory and stifling their ability to illegally tax the population. These strikes have contributed to the removal of key financiers from across region, thus degrading the terrorists’ ability to function as a viable entity and impose their despotic ideology. The Global Coalition continues to keep up its coordinated counter-terrorism pressure on the group’s leadership and cash reserves in Iraq and Syria paired with administrative and law enforcement actions to freeze its assets and sever its financial ties around the world.
Removing Daesh fighters, weapons, and explosive materials and targeting their finances and logistics chains remains a top priority as Daesh continues to plot attacks against innocent civilians, our partners throughout Iraq and northeast Syria, and the international community.
For more information please see:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1070
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm831
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1057
Photo: “ISIS Illegal Fuel Refinement” (Courtesy of Newsweek)
A man refines oil to produce gas and diesel. A micro-industry for fuel refinement has grown up around the desert town of Al Mansura east of Al Raqqah, the capital of ISIS. Small stills burn oil that is trucked in by the barrel load from the oil fields of Al Hasakah. Each still can process about a thousand liters of crude a day into gas and diesel. ISIS has taken oil fields from Syrian rebels and the government in recent months. They are believed to control hundreds of wells, an important source of income for ISIS and depriving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government of a major source of income. (November 2014)
Video: “Daesh's Illegal Oil Trade Explained” Dec 6, 2019. (Courtesy of the Global Coalition)
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To see in Arabic: CJTF-OIR Press Release 20200807-01-Hammering Daesh Financesالنسخة العربية
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