Washington: Assad is buying IS oil

Washington has said publicly for the first time that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is buying oil from Islamic State.

David Cohen, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington that IS are able to amass wealth at an "unprecedented pace" thanks to black-market oil sales totalling up to $1m a day.

Cohen said that the group is selling oil to a wide range of buyers, among them Iraqi Kurds who then resell the oil in Turkey. 

"It also appears that the Syrian government [of Bashar al-Assad] is making arrangements to buy oil from IS, in a further indication of the corruption of Assad's regime."

The US is strongly opposed to Assad's government, but Congress voted down a proposal in 2013 to launch military intervention in support of rebels.

However, US politicians did vote on 18 September to authorise the training of rebel groups it deems moderate - a full list of such groups, compiled by activist George Sabra Nott, can be found here.

IS, unlike other militant and extremist groups, are not forced to rely on trans-national funding, due to the vast profits they are able to reap from oil smuggling as well as taxation of areas under their control and kidnappings.