An airstrike on an ISIS bank in Mosul, Iraq on Sunday destroyed tens of millions of dollars in ISIS currency, un-named U.S. military officials told NBC.
The officials refused to say whether there had been civilian casualties in the airstrike, nor did they say what kind of currency was destroyed. The terrorist organization boasts in its English-language magazine “Dabiq” that it uses gold coins, according to the Clarion project, but photos have also circulated of ISIS fighters using U.S. dollars, according to PJ Media.
The US has ramped up its attack on ISIS’s source of income in recent months, target oil-fields and oil-tanker trucks, the New York Times reports. Sale of oil can generate $40 million per month, or $500 million per year.
Officials told CNN that two 2,000-pound bombs destroyed the site, but they noted that the longstanding damage dealt to ISIS could be greater. Previously, “one or two” cash facilities were attacked by U.S. planes, the officials added.
An Associated Press report in October estimates that ISIS extracts 30,000 barrels of oil per day in Syria, and 20,000 per day in Iraq, with much of it smuggled to Turkey, where female ISIS members in Ankara and Istanbul are wired money from the oil buyers.
To circumvent US bombing campaigns, ISIS has switched to deploying smaller oil tankers, more basic refineries, and even resort to temporary extractions, quickly pumping out some oil and then leaving, an anonymous Iraqi official told AP.
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