45,000 soldiers, five nations, 250,000 Iraqi and Syrian civilians murdered, and 1,083 overall assassinations - all numbers belonging to the terrorist group, ISIS. This group, branched off of al-Qaeda, controls major parts of Iraq, mainly the North and Northwest, and smaller parts of Syria. Gaining confidence and followers, ISIS has taken over Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. With the ongoing problems that ISIS is creating, their campaigns are getting larger and stronger by the day. The group has taken the world’s attention by storm, and has the tendency to create violence and chaos in a major city, before taking it over. Various tactics are used to take over these cities, such as: recruitment through social media, stealing and liquidating …show more content…
Social media is just another recruitment tool that ISIS uses for their own advantages. They use all these apps and websites to further promote themselves and to try and draw people in, but some could say that they use these worldwide used apps to send a warning. There has been some indications that there have been incidents where ISIS has reached out through social media before attacking. “In Russia, there were more than 25 threats made in a course of two years prior to an attack. Same with France, with around 25 threats in two years. Fourteen days before the Paris attack, there was a video released that was attempting to persuade young individuals to join their terrorist group. Again, in Lyre, the people were addressed in a video one month before they experienced a terrorist attack” (Shane, Hubbard). Although these attacks are important to know about, the real problem is within Syria and …show more content…
Most of their money comes from within Iraq, straight from: imposing on taxes, ransoms, intercepting aid meant to help the Syrian and Iraqi people, and pillaging (The Islamic State: Background). ISIS takes in about $80 million a month, with half of that coming right from taxes of the people who live under their control. The other portion of that comes from oil sales. When the terrorist group took over the city Mosul, they took $429 million from the central bank. On top of all this money coming in; they control oil and natural gas fields, which bring in another two million dollars per day. If they keep this up, it has been predicted that ISIS will be making around $100 million per month (The Islamic State: Background). ISIS stole money straight from the Iraqi military, which the U.S. put into commission and trained. The article about The Islamic State says that the terrorist group runs schools, a religious police force, food kitchens, an Islamic court system and even a Consumer Protection authority. “It reportedly pays fighters roughly $400 a month, which is more than the Iraqi government offers some staff” (Swanson). With all this money being brought in, stolen, and abused, ISIS is making their way to their ideal