Iraq News

US slaps sanctions on alleged new ISIS financiers

The US on Monday (April 15th) imposed sanctions on financiers with bases in Belgium, Kenya and Turkey on charges they funneled money internationally for the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), AFP reported.

The Treasury Department said it had pinpointed successors to Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, who was killed in a coalition airstrike in Syria in 2017 after allegedly sending millions of dollars earmarked for the extremists.

The US imposed sanctions on seven people including Mushtaq Talib Zughayr al-Rawi, who as of late 2018 was living with his family in Belgium, according to the Treasury Department.

Forces seized evidence during a raid on ISIS last year that showed Mushtaq was helping fund the group by exploiting the Iraqi government's electronic payment machines designed to distribute payments to public employees and retirees, the Treasury Department said.

"Treasury is dedicated to ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS by cutting off all remaining sources of their terror funding around the globe," said Sigal Mandelker, the department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned a money exchange company, Al-Ard Al-Jadidah, said to connect Iraq's hawalas with the northern Turkish city of Samsun.

An ISIS element in Iraq allegedly received $1 million through the exchange last year, it said.

Also targeted in the latest sanctions was Kenya-based Halima Adan Ali, who the Treasury Department said was part of a network that moved more than $150,000 through the hawala system to ISIS fighters in Syria, Libya and central Africa.

She has been arrested twice by Kenyan authorities and also served as a recruiter for Somalia's al-Shabab militants, according to the Treasury Department.

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