Iraqi terrorist militia groups figured out how to extract illicit funds for Iran from Visa and Mastercard payment networks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

According to the report, at the start of 2023, cross-border Visa and Mastercard transactions in Iraq generated about $50 million. By April of the same year, that figure had soared to $1.5 billion.

The militias, which include Kataib Hezbollah , the Badr Brigade, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, have helped the Islamic Republic avoid sanctions in what the US Treasury called a “clandestine network of financial facilitators.”

Iraq has both an official dollar exchange rate and a higher, unofficial rate. This allows individuals to buy prepaid cards in Iraq, withdraw the money elsewhere in the Middle East at Iraq’s lower official r

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