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ISIS cuts its fighters' salaries by 50%
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Jan 22, 2016 01:21pm |
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| Category | Report |
| Author | Jose Pagliery |
| News Date | Tuesday, January 19, 2016 11:25:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Wartime pressure on the Islamic State is forcing it to slash its fighters' salaries by half, according to documents leaked from inside ISIS territory.
ISIS might seem like a ragtag group of terrorists, but in reality, it operates as a government over parts of Iraq and Syria. And it hands out biweekly paychecks to its jihadist army.
ISIS soldiers earn between $400 and $1,200 a month, plus a $50 stipend for their wives and $25 for each child, according to the Congressional Research Service.
But running a state at war is expensive. And recent victories for the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS mean that the Islamic State can't afford to pay its soldiers quite as much as it used to.
ISIS makes most of its money by taxing its population. But one major source of pressure on ISIS' finances is the U.S.-led coalition's bombing runs. Airstrikes are taking aim at the ISIS oil business: blowing up oil trucks, storage tanks, mobile refineries and other oil field equipment.
The airstrikes have also targeted ISIS money itself -- literally. Last week, the United States military made an extremely unusual move, two U.S. defense officials told CNN. It dropped two 2,000-pound bombs on a building in central Mosul, Iraq, destroying a cache of cash worth "millions." |
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