ISIS is broke and unable to pay its fighters, former finance minister says.
Iraq’s former finance minister Hoshyar Zebari said. Sky News reported that Zebari had said that ISIS had gone from earning $5 million a day to going broke, and now the group cannot pay the fighters under its command. “They were a very, very rich organisation. Now, I think they are on the retreat and they are broke. Also they are losing ground, so this battle in Mosul is decisive to end their caliphate – to end their so-called Islamic State”, Zebari said. The funds allowed the militant organization to recruit fighters with the lure of a monthly wage – foreign fighters in particular were paid well. However with shrinking territory in Syria, and on the verge of losing their former Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, the militant group is on the decline, unable to hold on to territory and recruit and pay fighters to defend their self-proclaimed caliphate.