The Telegraph
The Syrian government cut deals with Islamic State to help the jihadists earn more than $40 million a month from the sale of oil, documents recovered from a US and British raid on a key commander have revealed.
Thousands of spreadsheets and accounts kept by the group’s oil boss Abu Sayyaf, retrieved in the biggest intelligence raid in US Special Forces' history last year, reveal how the two sides forged a mutually beneficial arrangement despite being at war with one another.
Isil fighters captured some of the state’s best-producing oil fields of eastern Syria in 2013.
The Telegraph reported claims two years ago that the regime had been purchasing oil from the jihadists, but the documents, seen by the Wall Street Journal, show the scale of the collusion.
At the height of production in late 2014 to early 2015, Isil recorded $40.7m profit each month - the lion’s share of which made from sales to the Syrian government, according to the US Treasury Department.
One memo, itemized No. 156 and dated Feb. 11, 2015, sent from Islamic State’s treasury to Abu Sayyaf’s office, requested guidance on establishing investment relationships with businessmen linked to the Bashar al-Assad regime.
The document cited existing agreements allowing trucks and pipeline transit from government-controlled fields through Isil-controlled territory.
Known only by his nom de guerre, Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian who moved to Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s fall, became close with a number of senior Sunni militants during the US invasion, including Isil founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
After Baghdadi established his "caliphate" in June 2014, Abu Sayyaf was tasked with running its oil business from headquarters in the al-Omar field in Deir Ezzour near the Iraqi border, previously run by Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell.
The documents reveal how instead of getting rid of state employees at the fields after they took them over, Abu Sayyaf offered them handsome salaries to stay - sometimes up to four times the national salary.
According to the accounts of people of worked for him, he was a much-feared boss who would threaten his some 152 employees with beheadings or exile to Iraq if they disobeyed him.
However his work seems to have brought results and he became instrumental in helping it become the world’s wealthiest terrorist group. His division reported $40.7 million in revenue in October-November 2014, a nearly 60 per cent increase on the previous month.
Spreadsheets retrieved show Isil’s natural resource revenues in the six months that ended in February 2015 amounted to $289.5 million - some 70 per cent of which came from Abu Sayyaf’s oil fields.
When the US-led coalition became aware of the huge profit-making operation that was being run, they began conducting air raids on its makeshift refineries.
The files show, however, the group was often able to bounce back quickly. In one memo, the group promises its buyers production would be back up and running after 14 days of repairs.
The huge profits continued until Abu Sayyaf’s death in a raid carried out by US Special Forces and the British SAS on his home in Deir Ezzour in May 2015.
"We now have reams of data on how ISIS operates, communicates and earns its money," a US official said after the raid. "They're meticulous record-keepers.”
According to the Journal, some of Abu Sayyaf's duties were taken over in March by the French jihadist Abu Mohammad al-Fransi.
While the international airstrikes have dented Islamic State’s income, they have not been destroyed.
East Syria between US-backed Kurds and Turkish-backed "moderate" Free Syrian Army rebels and to the south of its caliphate by Russian- and Iranian-backed regime forces. It has already lost some of its oil-fields.
President Barack Obama, on a visit to Germany, said he was increasing from 50 to 300 the number of American troops, including special forces, based with the Kurd-led Syria Democratic Forces group in north-east Syria, an alliance that also includes some FSA Arab fighters.
The troops have been training the SDF fighters to take on Isil, including by calling in air strikes.
The United States has also recently begun using its Cyber Command - cyberwarfare experts originally intended to face off against Russia, China and North Korea - against Isil.