Extortion, Bank Robbery Fuel ISIS Bloody Drive To Establish Sharia Caliphate

Foxnews.com offers a piece on the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq.

Long before it looted the Iraqi central bank in Mosul of $429 million, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Syria (ISIS) was well-funded in its quest to establish a Shariah caliphate, thanks to a raging criminal enterprise of extortion, bank robbery and petty theft, as well as donations from well-heeled sponsors throughout the Arab world, according to experts. 

The latest payday — gained when the jihadist group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi overran Iraq's second largest city and emptied the vaults of cash and gold bullion — swelled already healthy coffers and made ISIS, by some estimations, the world's richest terrorist organization. The group also seized U.S.-made tanks, Blackhawk helicopters, cargo planes and an unknown quantity of guns, all part of a $14 billion arsenal the U.S. sold or donated to the beleaguered Iraqi security forces.

The money and weapons are already helping ISIS in its ferocious bid to carve out a nation governed by strict and merciless Shariah law in northern Iraq and northwestern Syria. The group already sees itself as an independent state with large swaths of the two battle-scarred nations, areas it now controls and is bent on expanding. The "Levant" incorporated into the group's name historically refers to an eastern Mediterranean area that also includes parts of Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Cypus, though it's unclear exactly what territory the organization has designs on. 

 

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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/06/14/extortion-bank-robbery-fuel-isis-bloody-drive-to-establish-sharia-caliphate/