It isn't news that the Islamic State governs its self-proclaimed caliphate though a series of bureaucracies, but Reuters has some new details gleaned from a trove of paper documents, hard drives, thumb drives, and other electronic media captured by U.S. Special Operations Forces during a raid in Syria in May. ISIS has diwans, a rough equivalent of government ministries, that deal with securing revenue from natural resources — including oil and looted antiquities — and handling "war spoils," including slaves, the documents show. Many of the documents are fatwas, or religious rulings used as legal code in ISIS-controlled territory.
"Islamic State is invested in the statehood and Caliphate image more so than any other jihadist enterprise," says Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on ISIS's structure at the Middle East Forum think tank. "So a formal organization, besides being practical when you control so much contiguous territory and major cities, also reinforces the statehood image."
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