Who funds The State of Iraq and al-Sham?

This report would not provide definite information and figures about Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham “ISIS” and its sources of funding, because it is not that easy especially with the great deal of ambiguity around ISIS’s fund and financial support, besides most powerful forces in the region try to keep themselves away from being accused of funding ISIS, the branch of al-Qaeda in Syria.

Therefore, this report contains as much as possible theories and opinions explaining the sources of funds with all discrepancy in these theories.

First and the most acceptable theory for opposition is that ISIS is an organization directed by the Syrian and Iranian intelligence to be like Trojan horse that Assad’s regime attempts to penetrate the revolutionary forces to defame them and beat them.

People who adopt this theory base on two main facts: first is that ISIS rarely fought against the regime, and it concentrate on controlling liberated areas, and expulsion other battalions’ representatives even al-Nusra Front, which is a faction descending from al-Qaeda, besides imposing harsh rules of conduct claiming that they are the law of God on earth, as a prelude to establishing “Caliphate State.

The second fact is related to the suspicious appearance of al-Nusrah front then ISIS’s fighters in the scene toward the ends of the first year of Syrian revolution, and the cores for both al-Nusrah and ISIS have been formed from al-Qaeda’s former prisoners in Syria and Iraq.

in the first year of Syrian revolution, Assad regime released the most prominent symbols of  al-Qaeda detained in its prisons, who, in theory, dangerous on the regime. In the same time, the regime killed peaceful activists inside prisons, activists who call for change through demonstration and civil protests. That contradictory between the two actions raises a question mark about the aim behind doing that.

After a while, the largest mass escape took place from the most heavily guarded prisons in Iraq in Summer last year, where the most important al-Qaeda prisoners were among them, in the same time Iraqi regime currently execute hundreds of prisoner who are considered less dangerous, which raise query as well about the escape operation, in the same time other prisoners are kept locked in and killed later on

Ahmed al-Shami, says in "Beirut Observer bulletin: "only fools who believe that rich people in Gulf who fund al-Qaeda, this scenario fit for cinema films, but in fact, al-Qaeda is ruled from top to bottom by the Chinese, Russian and Iranian allies. Therefore, many faithful fighters who join al-Qaeda are in fact died to protect their killers.”

The core for ISIS and al-Nusra front consists of prisoners who were released from Syrian and Iraqi prisons, both al-Nusra and ISIS follow the stealthy policy like gangs, the leaders are usually masked and calling other to  believe them. How can someone believes a person afraid of unveiling his personality. In the same time, no one of them died or martyred.

Al-Nusrah front and ISIS methods of recruiting followers are different, as al-Nusra tends to recruit locals, while ISIS prefers the foreigners and immigrants.

Both of them want to establish Caliphate state headed by al-Zawahiri, who lives under Iran and Russia’s protection

Ahmad al-Shami seems to believes that Syrian regime supported by Iran is the source of fund to both al-Nusra and ISIS, and he thinks that regime has founded both of them from  al-Qaeda prisoners,  then  it penetrated the leadership and recruited thousands of faithful religious young men, who fiercely fight , while leaders stay away from the danger.

Tariq al-Hamid, wrote in the Middle East newspaper an article in which he agrees with al-Shami’s opinion and he points out to the golden rule  “Following the money” to know what ISIS and al-Nusra aim, the writer wonders about the contradictory between the explicit goal of ISIS which claims to be getting rid from Assad’s regime, in the same time, it fights members from the Free Syrian Army and try to get them out of the liberated areas.

He comments on the theory claiming that Gulf countries support ISIS and al-Nusra and considered it  unacceptable, because for example, Kuwaiti fund seems to be ineffective, and it has sectarian interest with Syrian regime, Saudi Arabia has strict monitoring methods for money transfer for a long time to tackle terrorism, and  Qatar’s rule is not clear.

Therefore, the source of fund for militant groups must be seriously questioned, especially they indirectly help Assad’s regime more than fighting it. Who read Iraq’s recent history after the fall of Saddam, and promoting “jihad” there, will be able to draw a conclusion that there are parties benefiting from what has been happening, especially to confuse the Free Syrian Army and discredit the revolution and Sunni, this is exactly what Assad wants, and this helps Iran.

Of course we cannot adopt Iraq’s scenario for sure, however, suspicions around the ISIS’s practices and the way of its beginning that coincident with the release of many al-Qaeda  important figures from Syria and Iraq, makes the theory of using ISIS and al-Nusrah as Trojan horse for Assad regime, acceptable.

In the same time, there are many other theories predicting the fund of  Islamic Militia in Syria like the Gulf’s formal and informal support to al-Qaeda, and others explain al-Qaeda’s strategies to secure self-financing, which explains the relentless attempts of ISIS and al-Nusra front to control border crossing between Syria and Turkey  and Iraq.

Read the original article; Translation by Yusra Ahmed