Expert reveals fund sources of ISIS, Nusra Front

Translation by Dani Murad

(Zaman Al Wasl-Eqtsad)- How the UN Security Council Resolution No /2170/ will affect the financing of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and al-Qaeda Syria's wing, Jabhat al-Nusra?

Hamza Mustafa, an expert in the Arab Center for Researches and Policy Studies, and Columnist in Zaman al-Wasl.

In his answer, Mustafa gave “Eqtsad, fellow newspaper,  a detailed explanation of the fund sources of "jihadist movements", and their circumstances after the recent developments in Iraq and Syria, and under the impact of UN resolution to track and impose sanctions on the financers of IS and Al Nusra.

Financing is the “Key Word”

According to Mustafa , no military or political organization can survive and continue without self-funding and external sources of support, and the observer of the Syrian scene and its details over the past political years, can see the demise of many political and military entities as a result of lack of funding and the scarcity of sources, yet, the differences between the external financiers and supporters impacted immensely on the organizational structure of some Syrian political and military entities.

With that introduction, Hamza started his interview with “Eqtsad” clarifying that unlike all military factions in Syria, the jihadist movements never complained of scarcity of sources, support, or ran out of ammunition, which raises a lot of questions regarding the sources of their funding, and why they have a flow of money without the others, yet no adequate and sufficient answers have been provided until now.

Mustafa gave in details the types of financing sources, as follows:

- Conventional sources:

it means those shared by all jihadist groups regardless of their place, activity, and are divided as follows:

1- Aid from the Origin:

Jihadist groups often emerge in a certain country or region from the womb of other regional movements, or under the request and coordination of the global jihad organization, accordingly, these organizations contribute in the emergence of the newly-porn groups, providing them with military and finial support.

In the Syrian case, al-Nusra Front was originated from the Islamic State of Iraq, and that was mentioned in a statement by its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in April 9/ 2013, and even al-Jolani has recognized in several occasions what he called “the State’s favor” and its contribution in the emergence of Al Nusra and the expansion of its influence.

While the Islamic State of Iraq was developed as an extension of al-Qaeda organization in Mesopotamia, which in turn was a branch of the global organization in Iraq, and therefore the Jihadist leadership undertook the responsibility of financing it in its fist years.

2- Donations:

Some jihadist movements arise without regional or international connections, and they adopt the jihadi Salafi ideas and methodologies, and in a later stage, they declare their allegiance to regional organizations or to the general organization, and once they’re accepted, the jihadists theoreticians recommend them, and soon their news spread in the jihadist forums, and consequently they obtain funding from donors in various Muslim countries.

And despite the great scrutiny in recent years by the banks and remittance companies on the source and destination of remittances, donations still present an important source of financing to Jihadist movements.

In the Syrian case, Arab Gulf donations which are mostly collected from Salafi religious men, have been a major factor in the activity of jihadist organizations, such as in the case of Sheikh Shafi al-Ajmi, and Hajjaj Al-Ajmi, who are the most prominent sources of funding for Al Nusra and other Islamic factions.

During the last two years, the two financers went public with their funding activity, with a court in the capital of Kuwait to receive donations, and even Al-Ajmi admitted that in an interview on Rotana Khalijia, in Ramadan that he contributed to the financing of Al Nusra and he is proud of that funding.

The expert believes that the Gulf financing has negatively impacted and harmed the revolution in Syria, because although the funding was not conditional or donated for special factions, yet the revolutionary factions which were originally civil brigades adopting the revolution’s principles and goals, have changed their language, and adopted a jihadist speech, or a pragmatic Salafi perspective, in order to get the financial support, as in the case of :Farouq battalions, al-Tawhid Brigade, and other small factions.

The Khaleeji money imposed certain people to manage this funding, and therefore the phenomenon of “Legitimate Foreigners” has become so common, such as Al Mahyesni, who used to recommend some faction over others.

Unlike al-Nusra, there are no prominent patrons in the Gulf countries that support “ISIS” and even al-Ajami, who presents the largest sources of funding, has clearly clarified his stance toward ISIS, by being biased toward Al Nusra and the Islamic Front.

Consequently, and with the international calls to cut off terrorists' foreign sources of wealth, new policies have been designed to encourage proper banking practices and bolster international customs enforcement, as well as to place terrorists and their associates on designation lists that block their travel and freeze their bank accounts, therefore, donations have become a fraction of the funding sources, and as a result the jihadist movements began to rely on:

- Non-conventional sources:

1- Spoils

The jihadist movements usually insure their needs and military supplies from spoils gained from their enemies, and this is why they deliberately break into military centers and bases which contain stores of weapons or military equipment, like in Syria, Al Nusra depended heavily on spoils as the main source of arming due to the lack of external support, especially after being put on America’s terrorist list.

Since Al Nusra’s fighters were the wining factor, and gave preponderance to any fight against Assad’s forces due to their courage and willingness to sacrifice, the leadership of Al Nusra took advantage of that by requesting the largest share of profits when attacking military bases, such as: Sheikh Suleiman, 46 Regiment, Khan Toman and Muheen warehouses.

It’s noteworthy that Al Nusra has been provided with external funding, but indirectly, through its participation in joint military operations rooms, as in the case of “people of Sham in Aleppo".

Even ISIS depended mainly on war spoils, however, on those seized from Al Nusra’s headquarters and other opposition battalions.

Then came the events of Iraq in the 10th of June 2014 with the collapse of the Iraqi army in all central cities , where they abandon their (light and heavy) weapons and equipment to the State, such as (vehicles, tanks, Armored Hummers, missiles, and live ammunition) and that gave the organization a fresh start and a financial and military recovery especially when it dominated some of the banks, (but numbers published in media are exaggerated) and that enabled it to expand, whether inside Iraq towards Kurdistan (before the American strikes) or in Syria.

The spoils are the primary source jihadist organizations funding, especially in light of the financial blockade imposed by the international entities, however, there are other unconventional sources that these groups rely on, which we will tackle in details in Part II of our conversation with the Syrian researcher, Hamza Mustafa.