ISIS receives funds from sympathizers in Turkey, Iraq, report says
Surviving networks of the Islamic State terror group still seem to have access to an estimated 100 million dollars in cash reserves hidden across the Middle East, according to a US Treasury Department report cited by Al-Monitor on Monday.
Furthermore, the group’s remnants in Syria continue to receive cash from associates based in Turkey and from smugglers in Iraq, the unclassified Treasury Department memo released earlier this month said.
Speaking to Al-Monitor, David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who led the State Department's economic warfare strategy against IS in 2014-15, said the new US administration wants to recalibrate Washington’s approach to the Middle East.
“Turkey’s tolerance for Islamic State financing was unusually high,” Asher told Al-Monitor, adding, "I don't believe that there has been sufficient effort ever mounted inside Turkey to cut the Islamic State's finance and banking logistics networks off.”
