Baghdad’s control of Iraq’s provinces is, in part, based on its custodianship of the country’s petrodollars, with the oil sector contributing up to 99 percent of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. The war against ISIS, however, forced the government to divert huge sums of money to the army, as well as to the salaries of 110,000 fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces in November, in a bid to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Shia paramilitary groups. This siphoned much-needed revenue from the provinces.