In January, a U.S. airstrike took out a key part of ISIS infrastructure, a bank that had been used to pay its fighters. The Department of Defense has now declassified a video of the explosion and released it.
The Daily Mail reports,
Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. Central Command, told CNN: ‘It was a good strike. And we estimate that it served to deprive ISIL of millions of dollars.
‘And combined with all of the other strikes that we’ve done on ISIL’s gas and oil production and distribution capabilities and strikes against his economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, you can bet that (it) is feeling the strain on his checkbook.’
Austin said that this is not the first strike on an ISIS cash storage site.
‘ISIL needs those funds to pay their fighters, to recruit new fighters and to conduct their various maligned activities,’ he said.
‘You know, we said from the outset of this campaign that to defeat ISIL, we’re going to have to take away its ability to resource’ itself.
The U.S. is now said to be planning to bomb more ‘financial targets’ to cut off its ability to function as a state.
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ISIS released an hour long propaganda video showing off its very own currency, in the form of small gold coins, in August.The video, thought to have been shot in Mosul, showed gold, silver and copper coins being smelted. It is not known whether that same factory was hit by U.S. warplanes this weekend.
Despite glorifying their new currency, ISIS is still believed to use U.S. dollars and local currency to pay its fighters.
In the same video, the terror group claimed its 21-carat gold coin would weigh 4.25g and be worth around $139.
It also claimed the coin, which could never be used outside ISIS territory, would never lose its value.
The U.S. risked killing up to 50 civilians in the attack, but fortunately only five to seven people were killed, and it is not known if any of them were civilians. Kudos to Gen. Lloyd Austin and the top brass who coordinated this key bombing of ISIS. It is good to know that despite the fact the U.S. is currently under Obama, our military is not completely hampered. Watch the stunning explosion below.