ISIS
militants (right) in Syria are believed to be profiting from shipments
of Red Bull, the energy drink. A Turkish haulage company claims to ship
five truckloads a day into the warzone. File pictures
ISIS
militants control many border crossing points between the two
countries. State control by the Damascus government is now non-existent
is and transporters pay tolls and fees to whoever controls the crossing.
While
Turkey imposed sanctions on Assad three years ago, the cross-border
trade is legal and shows up in Turkish customs data, reports Bloomberg.
More than £163million in goods this year crossed via the the Turkish border towns of Cilvegozu and Oncupinar, the figures show.
They
are close to towns which are controlled by the Islamic Front, a
coalition of militants fighting both the Assad regime and ISIS.
Meanwhile, £201million in goods crossed into Syria from nearby Gaziantep.
Cement, vegetable oil, bulgur wheat, flour, salt and tinned fruit are popular goods, as is Red Bull.
'Every
day we have four or five trucks carrying Red Bulls to Syria,' Mustafa
Yilmaz, owner of Turkish trucking company Cem-Ay Transport told
Bloomberg.
He added that buyers on the Syrian side don’t identify themselves to the transporters.
A man holds up a knife as he rides on
the back of a motorcycle touring the streets of Tabqa city with others
in celebration after Islamic State militants took over Tabqa air base,
in nearby Raqqa cit, Syria
In
September alone the Red Bull consignments made up, along with the other
goods, trade with Syria worth an estimated £800million.
America
and European NATO allies of Turkey are putting increasing pressure on
the Ankara government to do more to squeeze the financial arteries of
ISIS but so far the Turkish state has done little except allow in some
Kurdish fighters into the besieged border town of Kobane.
There
is evidence to suggest ISIS fighters take speed to heighten their
combat skills and stave off exhaustion, while the drug khat is used by
jihadists in Yemen and Somalia.
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