ISIS Faces Cash Crunch, Reduces Fighters’ Salaries by 50 Percent

Air strikes continue to target oil fields, supply lines and cash stores controlled by ISIS, affecting its revenue.

The ISIS flag. (Photo: The News Minute)

Islamic State has cut its fighters’ salaries by 50 percent in Syria, as air strikes continue to target oil fields, supply lines and cash stores, affecting its revenue streams.

According to a translation provided by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, an ISIS expert and fellow at the Middle East Forum, the document states:

<p>So on account of the exceptional circumstances the Islamic State is facing, it has been decided to reduce the salaries that are paid to all mujahideen by half, and it is not allowed for anyone to be exempted from this decision, whatever his position. Let it be known that work will continue to distribute provisions twice every month as usual.</p>

The document appears to have been released by IS’s treasury, the “Bayt Mal al-Muslimeen” in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria.

A US-led coalition, Russia, France and Britain have all been pounding IS targets and the US claimed in November that operations against ISIS were already causing “significant damage” to the militant group’s funding.

American officials vowed to “step up the attack” and the group’s Omar oilfields were the first installations to be targeted by British warplanes when they began bombing Islamic State in December last year.

Last week, the US Defense Department declassified a video which shows the US bombing of an Islamic State cash stockpile in Mosul, in Iraq.

(With inputs from wires.)