"In 2015, the ISIL terrorist group earned over $3bln in Iraq and Syria, including $600mln from exports of crude oil and $300mln from gas, but after the ISIL-held regions, specially energy-rich regions, shrank the group faced sharp decline in its revenues," the report, carried out by 60 journalists and activists, said.
"The ISIL had to find new sources of income. Trafficking of drugs, smuggling of historical monuments, looting museums, imposing high taxes on consumption of water and electricity stood atop the ISIL's new resources of revenues," the report added.
"ISIL earned around 900,000,000 euros from different taxes and also 150 million of dollars from trade of cigarettes and narcotics," the report said, adding, "In the meantime, the ISIL that had around 30,000 of fighters in 2015, now in the middle of 2016 has only 12,000 combatants in the battlefields in Iraq and Syria;" FNA reported.
218-11