Watch: millions of dollars worth of fluttering cash after a US airstrike on an ISIS depot
The video was released by the US Department of Defense, saying it was a targeted strike to eliminate the money.
Two bombs struck a building believed to be an ISIS cash depot at dawn on January 11. The building in Mosul, Iraq is in a civilian area. According to CNN, the channel that the footage was released to, US planes kept a watch over the building for many days to decide the best time to strike. One official told CNN that the US was willing to risk up to 50 civilian casualties.
The stuff fluttering around after the strike? Currency notes worth millions of dollars, according to the US military authorities. And apparently the money also landed on neighbouring rooftops. The video, which has no sound, begins moments before a pair of 2,000-pound bomb strike the building.
"It was a good strike. And we estimate that it served to deprive ISIL of millions of dollars," said General Lloyd Austin, head of the US Central Command, using another name for ISIS. "And combined with all of the other strikes that we’ve done on ISIL’s gas and oil production and distribution capabilities and strikes against its economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, you can bet that (it) is feeling the strain on his chequebook," CNN quoted him as saying.