US imposes sanctions on new so-called EI financiers



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The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on financiers with bases in Belgium, Kenya and Turkey, accused of having sent money internationally for the extremist group "Islamic State".

The Treasury Department announced that it had identified the successors of Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, killed during an air strike led by the US coalition in Syria in 2017 after allegedly sending millions of dollars intended to the jihadists.

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

The forces seized evidence during a raid on the group of Islamic states last year, which showed that Mushtaq was helping them finance them by exploiting the Iraqi government's electronic payment machines designed to distribute Payments to public employees and retirees, announced the Treasury Department.

"Treasury is committed to ensuring the lasting defeat of the Islamic State by removing all sources of terrorist financing around the world," said Sigal Mandelker, deputy secretary of the department's Department of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Rawi's network dates back to the 1990s in Iraq, when he used the region's hawala system, the informal network of transfers under face-to-face guarantees, to escape the heavy international sanctions imposed on the then-led country. by Saddam Hussein.

The Treasury Department has also sanctioned a foreign exchange company, Al-Ard Al-Jadidah, which is supposed to connect the Iraqi hawala to the city of Samsun in northern Turkey.

A member of an Islamic state in Iraq would have received a million dollars through the exchange last year, he said.

Halima Adan Ali, based in Kenya, who, according to the Treasury Department, is part of a network that transfers more than $ 150,000 via the hawala system to fighters of the Islamic State in Syria, Libya and in Central Africa, has also been targeted by the latest sanctions.

She was arrested twice by Kenyan authorities and also served as a recruiter for Somali militants from al-Shabaab, according to the Treasury Department.

As a result of this announcement, the United States will seize all discovered badets belonging to the sanctioned persons and will prohibit any American any financial transaction with them.

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