Iraq Militants Loot Bank, Are Now Insanely Wealthy

ISIS makes off with $429M, may be world's richest terror group
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 12, 2014 8:46 AM CDT
Iraq Militants Loot Bank, Are Now Insanely Wealthy
This image made from video posted online, June 11, 2014, shows ISIS militants on Al-Sharqat base north of Tikrit, Iraq.   (AP Photo/Iraqi0Revolution via AP video)

What's worse than a ruthless multinational terrorist organization? A rich ruthless multinational terrorist organization. And that's what Iraq has on its hands now, because the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has plundered 500 billion Iraqi dinars—or about $429 million—from Mosul's central bank, which the International Business Times believes makes them the world's richest terror group. That's hard to actually verify—and it depends on your definition of "terrorist" the Washington Post points out—but the money will, as one analyst puts it, "buy a whole lot of Jihad."

ISIS could, for instance, pay 60,000 fighters $600 a month for a year. In the wake of its takeover of Tikrit, the group vowed today to march on Baghdad, the AP reports, though the city doesn't appear to be in imminent danger. The Guardian has a good recap of just what ISIS is, noting that the group is so extreme that al-Qaeda disowned it. Then again, the Post observes that at this point ISIS and other splinter groups are likely more dangerous than al-Qaeda itself. (More Islamic State of Iraq stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X