Video Shows 'Millions' Worth of Islamic State Cash Go Up in Smoke in US Airstrike

When the US bombed a warehouse near the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, it delivered what could literally be described as a costly blow to the Islamic State (IS). According to the US military, the facility contained millions of dollars worth of cash that IS used to pay fighters and fund its operations.

Footage of the airstrike was released on Saturday by Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, the name of the US-led military coalition in Iraq. The black-and-white clip shows two large explosions in the vicinity of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, which has been under IS occupation since July 2014. The clip describes the target as a "cash and finance" distribution center.

Related: How the US Military's Fight Against the Islamic State Became 'Operation Inherent Resolve'

The strikes took place on Monday, January 11. US warplanes dropped two bombs weighing 2,000 pounds each on the site. CNN reported that at least five civilians were killed in the strike.

US officials told CNN that they couldn't say exactly how much money was in the building, or what currencies. "We estimate in the millions of dollars… from all their illicit stuff: oil, looting, extortion," the US defense official told CNN.

Part of the US-led coalition's ongoing strategy against IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, involves crippling the group's infrastructure and cutting off its sources of funding, essentially to prevent it from functioning like a state. A campaign known as Operation Tidal Wave II has targeted IS's lucrative oil smuggling business by bombing oil trucks, crude oil collection points, and oil separation points. According to a State Department Official, that campaign has so far reduced IS's revenue from $1.3 million a day to less than $1 million.

In a Department of Defense press briefing on January 6, Colonel Steve Warren, a US military spokesman, said the coalition had conducted 65 strikes against oil targets. "We assess this operation has reduced their revenue by about 30 percent," Warren said. "We estimate that ISIL produced 45,000 barrels of oil per day before Tidal Wave II and it has been reduced to about 34,000 barrels per day now."

Related: Bombing the Islamic State's Oil Isn't the Slam Dunk You Might Expect It to Be

"In addition to chipping away at their so-called caliphate [and] killing their leaders, we're also hitting them in the pocketbook," Warren said.

Defense officials have not revealed the intelligence source that led them to the location of the cash storage facility. A raid conducted last June on the multi-story residence of Abu Sayyaf, the group's top financial officer, reportedly provided US intelligence agencies with important information regarding IS's finances and leadership structure.

Follow VICE News on Twitter: @vicenews