ISIS made $500 Million from Oil Sales, U.S. Official Reports

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, made at least $500 million from black market sales of oil, a U.S. Treasury Official reported on Thursday.

The oil was mainly sold to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but there is evidence that the oil sales extend to Kurdish areas and Turkey.

"ISIL is selling a great deal of oil to the Assad regime," Adam Szubin, an official with the U.S. Treasury Department, said while at Chatham House in London, Reuters reported. "The two are trying to slaughter each other and they are still engaged in millions and millions of dollars of trade."

Szubin added that the terrorist group sells about $40 million worth of oil per month but did not say whether or not this amount can be multiplied over the course of the year. He also did not give a time frame for the $500 million.

This amount of money that ISIS makes helps them fuel their cause, which can be problematic for the United States, France, Britain and allies who are actively fighting the group in Syria and Iraq.

Since the Nov. 13 attack on Paris, which the Islamic State claimed responsibility for, France and allies have been carrying out airstrikes in Syria with the hopes of dismantling the group.

The remarks regarding the oil sale profits came after Russia and Turkey have been accusing one another about trading oil from ISIS. The two countries have been verbally attacking one another ever since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in November.

Russia had claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family were personally profiting from the oil deals with ISIS. The U.S. did not support the allegations at the time.

"We never said oil smuggling from ISIL is not a problem," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner had said. "[But] there is no Turkish government complicity in some operation to buy illegal oil from ISIL. We just don't believe that to be true in any way, shape or form."

Aside from the oil trade, Szubin added that ISIS has stolen about $1 billion from the banks in Syria and Iraq.