ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--Documents captured from the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria gives further insight into the group's administeration and financial structure.
The documents-as reviewed by Reurters-reveal that ISIS has its own bureaucracy to manage the handling of everything, through different diwans, from stolen antiquities, plundered oil and enslaved people who have been used for forced labour and as sex slaves.
"This really brings it out," Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama's envoy for counter-ISIS efforts told Reuters, "The level of bureaucratization, organizations, the diwans, the committees."
The tranche of internal Islamic State documents, was captured by the United States during a special forces raid into Syria last May which killed Abu Sayyaf, ISIS's top financial official.
The data is saved on computer and flash drive, CDs, DVDs and paper documents. They give further insight into how the terrorist group has managed to effectively consolidate its control over swaths of territory it has captured and their local populations.
"Islamic State is invested in the statehood and Caliphate image more so than any other jihadist enterprise," explained Aymenn al-Tamimi of 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."
On the economic front ISIS is described as "meticulous and data-oriented" when it comes to the management of the natural resources it has managed to plunder and sell on the black market.
The US-led coalition has recently expanded its campaign against ISIS's revenue sources which they believe will help weaken the group's overall ability to generate economy.
Many of the documents are religious rulings (fatwas) drafted by the group.
They cover a plethora of issues and seem aimed at establishing clear laws, which ISIS argue are grounded in Islamic tradition, under which the so-called caliphate is to be governed and give itself credibility as a nascent nation state.
The documents-as reviewed by Reurters-reveal that ISIS has its own bureaucracy to manage the handling of everything, through different diwans, from stolen antiquities, plundered oil and enslaved people who have been used for forced labour and as sex slaves.
"This really brings it out," Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama's envoy for counter-ISIS efforts told Reuters, "The level of bureaucratization, organizations, the diwans, the committees."
The tranche of internal Islamic State documents, was captured by the United States during a special forces raid into Syria last May which killed Abu Sayyaf, ISIS's top financial official.
The data is saved on computer and flash drive, CDs, DVDs and paper documents. They give further insight into how the terrorist group has managed to effectively consolidate its control over swaths of territory it has captured and their local populations.
"Islamic State is invested in the statehood and Caliphate image more so than any other jihadist enterprise," explained Aymenn al-Tamimi of 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."
On the economic front ISIS is described as "meticulous and data-oriented" when it comes to the management of the natural resources it has managed to plunder and sell on the black market.
The US-led coalition has recently expanded its campaign against ISIS's revenue sources which they believe will help weaken the group's overall ability to generate economy.
Many of the documents are religious rulings (fatwas) drafted by the group.
They cover a plethora of issues and seem aimed at establishing clear laws, which ISIS argue are grounded in Islamic tradition, under which the so-called caliphate is to be governed and give itself credibility as a nascent nation state.
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