Cash-strapped ISIS 'axing Snickers bars for fighters' in desperate bid to avoid meltdown

Desperate ISIS is now releasing detainees for $500 a person, having once bragged of minting its own currency.

Bombing has whittled down the Jihadis' cash reserves, which were once so healthy fighters received competitive salaries and bonuses for honeymoons and babies.

Now the militants are not even given small perks such as free energy drinks and Snickers bars.

Those living in Syria and Iraq speak of sky-high inflation and shortages of necessities in the urban centres.

The desperate terror group is reportedly switching the bulk of its earning focus on to Libya.

The Associated Press reports from people exiled from Raqqa that salaries have been halved since December, electricity is rationed, and prices for basics are spiralling out of control.

"Not just the militants. Any civil servant, from the courts to the schools, they cut their salary by 50 per cent," said an activist now living in Turkey.

ISIS – also known as Daesh – has been left needing to replace weapons lost in air strikes, and the pay cuts have not been enough to plug the gap.

Within the last two weeks, the extremist group started accepting only dollars for "tax" payments, water and electric bills, according to another Raqqa activist.A directive in Raqqa regarding fighters pay reads: "On account of the exceptional circumstances the Islamic State is facing, it has been decided to reduce the salaries that are paid to all Mujahideen by half, and it is not allowed for anyone to be exempted from this decision, whatever his position."

The noose has tightened on the extremists because of a drop in the global prices for oil and air strikes from powers including the UK, France, the US and Russia pounding cash stores and assets.

Iraq has also stopped paying civil servants working in ISIS territory salaries, adding to the terror group's commitments.

Hundreds of residents have fled out of frustration, with Syrians abroad sending cash in dollars back to help people pay for sky-rocketing vegetables and sugar.

Lisa Monaco, Barack Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, said: "We are seeing our efforts having some effect on their financial flows.

"And it's difficult to get a handle on just how much because of the different illicit ways in which they are handling their finances but you've seen the efforts that our military has taken to take out cash storage sites, and I think it is our hope and expectation that that will have demonstrable effects.

"On what order of magnitude, I think it's difficult to say."

(dailystar.co.uk)