After stealing $425 million, ISIS is being called the 'world's richest terrorist group'

After stealing $425 million, ISIS is being called the 'world's richest terrorist group'
(Image credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A provincial governor in Iraq says that insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) went into Mosul's central bank and took off with 500 billion Iraqi dinars, or $425 million.

Atheel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh province, said that the militants also took millions from other banks in Mosul, as well as a "large quantity of gold bullion." With its new fortune, ISIS has more money than several small nations, including Tonga and the Marshall Islands, and can "buy a whole lot of Jihad," Brown Moses, a regional analyst, wrote on Twitter. "For example, with $425 million, ISIS could pay 60,000 fighters around $600 a month for a year."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.