Looted Banks Fund Iraq Fighters Eyeing Wealth Al-Qaeda Never Had
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The extremist militants battling government forces in Iraq know it takes more than guns and ammunition to carve out their Islamic state.
As violence escalates outside Iraq’s largest northern oil refinery in Baiji, fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant are trying to add to the oil fields and facilities the group controls in Syria and are also eyeing factories and power plants. With assets and territory, ISIL’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has financial strength that al-Qaeda never managed to have under Osama bin Laden, who relied mainly on supporters living in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations.