The jihadi militants in Iraq are piling up a fortune in cash along with oil refineries, factories and power plants to fulfill their goal of creating a new Islamist state, a new report said Thursday.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria “is not out in the economic boondocks of Afghanistan or hidden in deserts and caves,” Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University, told Bloomberg News. “[ISIS] is developing in a vital oil, gas and trade area of the world. It can grab as it expands.”

Also Thursday, prominent Shiite leaders pushed for the removal of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.