The invasion of Mosul and most of the other Sunni cities entails economic and managerial plans, including the provision of fuel, food supplies, distribution of land and the search for funding resources from oil wells — the newly exploited and operating ones and those that remain under geologic studies.
Over the past two months, IS has refrained from completely entering the Beiji refinery, although the Iraqi military presence there is limited and is no different in substance from any other force the organization has fought before.
The truth is that IS is dealing with the strategic Beiji refinery and other oil and industrial facilities in the areas under its control as being its property, and part of its future system that needs to be funded. It seems that the organization is trying to control all these facilities without causing any damages that could obstruct their use in the future.
This is exactly the opposite approach of the organization’s traditional strategy, which was based on targeting the pillars of the state, destroying its infrastructure and oil pipelines.
The British newspaper Daily Mail revealed information confirming that IS is making around $1 million daily by selling Iraqi oil, while other data indicates that the organization is selling 150,000 barrels per day from Syrian oil fields.
IS is considered the richest armed organization in the world, and it has also taken over around $425 million from Iraqi banks in Mosul. All these funds are used to restructure IS from within. It thus started to act as a state, using the expertise of the former state figures who had ruled under the previous regime — including technicians, administrators and military men — while importing experts from abroad to highlight its new state and make it appear different than expected.
The threat of Baghdadi’s organization lies in its ability to plan in the long run, and invest all available means to implement its plans. The organization might change its rules and start dealing with secularists or nationalists, or even those who are in direct opposition with its ideology, thus adapting to all situations to achieve the higher goal of taking hold of the land.
(Al Qaeda image via Shutterstock)
Comments are closed.