Citat:
For a year after Islamic State fighters swept through a third of Iraq, Baghdad continued to pay pensions and salaries of state employees inside the self-proclaimed caliphate.
But since July all such payments have been halted, depriving whole cities' pensioners, civil servants, doctors, teachers, nurses, police and workers at state-owned companies of both their income and some of their last official links to Baghdad.
The move is meant to cut Islamic State militants off from of an income stream they have been skimming to fund their efforts to build a self-sustaining state in Iraq and Syria.
...
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body overseeing global efforts to fight money laundering and terrorism financing, identified Iraqi salary payments as a “recurring source of revenue” for the group, potentially providing hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Government officials concede that cutting off salaries is painful for those affected, but say they cannot continue to effectively bankroll the caliphate.
...
State workers will be reimbursed once their areas are "liberated", and those who manage to escape Islamic State territory can claim their wages and pensions elsewhere, the government says.
...
Islamic State benefited not only from directly skimming off the cash, but indirectly as well. Monthly payments meant the population could afford fuel and cooking gas which the militants tax, and pay for services Islamic State provides, such as street cleaning and drinking water.
