US, Turkey sanction alleged Islamic State Group supporters
In its announcement Thursday, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was imposing sanctions on an Iraqi national living in Turkey, Abd Al Hamid Salim Ibrahim Ismail Brukan al-Khatuni, his sons and the Turkish money service firm where they all worked. They are accused of facilitating financial transfers to and from Iraq and Syria for the benefit of the Islamic State.
Another individual, Lu’ay Jasim Hammadi al-Juburi, an Islamic State financial administration official also living in Turkey, was accused of using the firm Sham Express, a company founded in 2020 by Brukan al-Khatuni, to transfer funds to ISIS.
Thursday’s sanctions actions freeze and block any potential transactions with U.S. entities and prevents Americans from doing business with them.
The State Department noted that Turkey is concurrently freezing the assets of those targeted by the U.S. sanctions.
Brian Nelson, Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said Thursday’s actions reaffirm “Treasury’s commitment to degrade ISIS’s ability to operate globally.”
The actions come after two November rounds of sanctions were imposed on people and firms in Africa who it says have provided financial or material support to Islamic State.
The Islamic State group is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
In November, Defense Department officials warned that they were “deeply concerned” about escalating IS activities in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. “This escalation threatens the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS’s years-long progress to degrade and defeat ISIS,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig Gen Patrick Ryder.
