Interesting Award: IS militants now world's richest Terrorist group

The Islamic State (IS) has become the world's wealthiest terror group, generating tens of millions of dollars a month from black market oil sales, ransoms and extortion, officials said on Thursday.

It earns $1-million a day alone by selling crude oil from fields captured when the group swept across Iraq and Syria earlier this year, said David Cohen, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Because the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, has "amassed wealth at an unprecedented pace" from different sources than most terror groups, it presents a particular challenge to the US and its allies working to choke off money flows.

"We have no silver bullet, no secret weapon to empty ISIL's coffers overnight. This will be a sustained fight, and we are in the early stages," Cohen said.

He is among a team of Obama administration officials leading the fight against the IS group, seeking to get allies, including Gulf countries, on board.

http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/967463.html

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