Una ventina di giorni fa la Delta Force ha effettuato un raid contro una base dell’ISIS in territorio siriano. Oltre ad aver ucciso uno dei leader del movimento, la Delta ha raccolto molto materiale di intelligence che, secondo un articolo del New York Times, si sta rivelando utile per definire meglio obiettivi, finanze e gerarchia del c.d. “Stato Islamico”. Tra gli aspetti più allarmanti vi sarebbe la crescente espansione internazionale delle rete di contatti.

[…] Within two weeks of the raid, American officials were able to use information gathered from the materials to attack Abu Hamid in the vicinity of Ash Shaddadi, near Hasakah in northeast Syria. American officials described him as the emir of Shariah and tribal affairs.
The materials also revealed new details about how the Islamic State has allocated revenue from oil production. About half goes to the group’s general operating budget; the remainder is split roughly between maintaining the oil-field production facilities and for salaries to the workers, American officials said.
These workers, once thought possibly to be conscripted locals, are now believed to be salaried Islamic State employees, thus making them legitimate targets, officials said.
American counterterrorism analysts have learned new information about the Islamic State’s hierarchy. One leader, Fadel al-Hayali, also known as Abu Mu’taz, who had been believed to be the head of the Islamic State’s military council, appears to have played an even more important role than previously known.
Abu Mu’taz, a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi military intelligence agency of President Saddam Hussein, led the council of six to nine military commanders who directed the Islamic State’s military strategy, according to Laith Alkhouri, a senior analyst at Flashpoint Global Partners, a security consulting firm that tracks militant websites.
The military council has a subgroup known as the Security Council, which is in charge of leading Islamic State assassinations, kidnappings, interrogations and other attacks, Mr. Alkhouri said. There were reports in November 2014 and again in February that Abu Mu’taz died in coalition airstrikes but the Islamic State never put out a confirmation, he said.
Although Abu Sayyaf himself was not well known, he was important as much for who and what he knew about the Islamic State’s hierarchy and operations as for his actual job, American officials and independent analysts said.
“Considering Abu Sayyaf’s role, he presumably would have been familiar, and in contact, with Abu Mu’taz, possibly as the point of contact to the central leadership,” Mr. Alkhouri said. “Abu Sayyaf’s role as financing man is important because he managed large amounts of money; funds that the central leadership would want to keep tabs on.”