ISIL-KP Financing
ISIL-KP continues to conduct attacks in Afghanistan and more recently Pakistan, challenging the Taliban’s consolidation of control. This article provides an update and overview of the group’s financing activities following several notable arrests and the reported death of ISIL-KP’s leader. This analysis was originally written for my book, Illicit Money: Financing Terrorism in the 21st Century,1 but has been updated.
Last updated 8 August 2023
While some have suggested that ISIL-KP is “starved financially”, the group has continued to mount operations and conduct attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The international community continues to have concerns about the group’s ability to mount external operations.2 While counter-terrorism pressures in the mid-to-late 2010s reduced ISIL-KP’s operational capabilities and likely affected some of their revenue streams, the pace and intensity of attacks suggests that the group has an unidentified or underestimated funding source, or that their expenses are far less than previous estimates suggest, and certainly sufficient to mount high-impact attacks. Targeting specific areas of their finances, such as cash storage sites, financial managers, and external revenue streams are the best options for countering their ability to finance their activities.