US sanctions Filipino, 2 other IS recruiters

The US Treasury Department has blacklisted a Filipino and two other senior members of the Islamic State (IS) who were involved in recruitment activities for the terror group and had appeared in a beheading video.

Filipino Mohammad Reza Lahaman Kiram, Malaysian Mohamad Rafi Udin and Indonesian Mohammed Karim Yusop Faiz were identified by the US Treasury as specially

designated global terrorists acting for or on behalf of the IS.

The action freezes their access to the US financial system.

The US move came a day after the United Nations also imposed sanctions on the three men, subjecting them to asset freeze and travel ban.

“Treasury is targeting IS recruiters who have engaged in a beheading video and other brutal acts as part of a propaganda campaign to attract radicals to join militant terrorist groups in Southeast Asia,” said Sigal Mandelker, US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

With their blacklisting, the US Treasury Department said all of their properties and interests in property that are subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and that US citizens are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

Believed to be fighting for IS in Syria as of January last year, Kiram was appeared alongside Faiz and Udin in an IS propaganda video that showed them beheading three prisoners in 2016.

He was a member of a Philippine-based militant group that pledged alliance to IS, and was seen training recruits in 2014 before travelling to Syria with his wife and daughter in 2015.

Kiram was tagged as among those responsible for a bus bombing in Zamboanga in 2012.

He was detained for nine years in the Philippines on charges of illegal possession of explosives and weapons.