New US report reveals Turkey’s role in ISIS funding
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) revealed on Tuesday that Muhammad Dande Adiguna, an Indonesian citizen living in the central Turkish province of Kayseri, had acted as a financial facilitator, helping to transfer funds to ISIS.
Information provided by the Office of Foreign Assets Control shows that ISIS is able to finance its fighters and operations in northern Syria, particularly in areas controlled by the Turkish armed forces and their armed groups.
Similar findings have been noted in reports by the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee, which say that both ISIS and al-Qaeda have raised funds in areas under Turkish control.
According to the OFAC report, 26-year-old Adiguna works closely with Doi Dalia Susanty, an Indonesian woman and ISIS financial facilitator whom Adiguna helped not only with financial matters but also operational techniques, within the triangle of Turkey, Indonesia and Syria, where the two worked together to deliver funds to ISIS cells to enable family members to move to safer areas in Idlib, Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, as well as to recruit youth in the region.
The US report came during the 16th meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Counter-ISIS Financing Group, a group of nearly 70 countries and international organizations led by the US, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
Brian E. Nelson, Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said: The Treasury Department today took action to detect and disrupt the network of international facilities that have supported ISIS recruitment, including for children at risk in Syria.
As part of the international coalition to defeat ISIS, the United States is committed to denying ISIS the ability to raise and move funds across multiple countries.
ISIS has likely received funding from more than 40 countries, from which it has funneled funds to ISIS-linked individuals in Syria that the United States believes will support the group’s future comeback.
“Al-Hol camp for displaced people in northern Syria, where ISIS elements receive up to $20,000 per month, receives most of the funding from Turkey. ISIS is particularly focused on smuggling children from camps for displaced people to recruit them as fighters”. The OFAC report said
On Monday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the Biden administration aims to expose and disrupt the international ISIS facilitation network that has funded ISIS recruitment, including at-risk children in Syria.
The Turkish heartland of Kayseri, where Adiguna is based, is a stronghold of President Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and extremists from al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Thousands of armed men, both Turkish and foreign, have used Turkish territory to cross into Syria with the help of smugglers to fight alongside ISIS there, and Turkey’s intelligence agency has facilitated their travel through the southeastern border province of Kilis, one of the main crossing points into ISIS-controlled territory.
