Iraq Cuts-Off Pensions And Wages To Islamic State Controlled Regions

A sign by the Islamic State is seen in the city of Mosul. Reuters

Reuters: Iraq has cut off wages in ISIS-held cities, which could tighten the militants' grip

ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi government's decision to choke off funding for Islamic State by cutting off all wages and pensions in cities controlled by the group has plunged people into hardship and could help the insurgents tighten their grip, officials and residents say.

For a year after Islamic State fighters swept through a third of Iraq, Baghdad continued to pay pensions and salaries of state employees inside the self-proclaimed caliphate.

But since July all such payments have been halted, depriving whole cities' pensioners, civil servants, doctors, teachers, nurses, police and workers at state-owned companies of both their income and some of their last official links to Baghdad.

WNU Editor: This is one of those situations where you are damned if you do, and damn if you don't. The net result of this will be more refugees, and definitely more suffering in Islamic State controlled territories.