Comparing Sunni and Shi’a Rebel Financing in Iraq: Case Studies of ISIS and Kataib Hezbollah

The financial assets of rebel groups vary significantly. This article uses the results of comparative case studies to investigate the similarities and differences between Sunni and Shi’a paramilitary-organisation funding sources in Iraq. It examines various categories of resource mobilisation in the post-2014 Iraqi crisis, concentrating on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a predominantly Sunni militant force, and Kataib Hezbollah (KH), a Shi’a paramilitary organisation. It finds that ISIS had access to a vast array of financial resources, albeit not on a sustained basis, while KH appears to have had more constrained, though permanent, revenue options.