Two Daesh leaders involved in making chemical weapons put on US terror list
WASHINGTON: In a first designation of its kind, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Monday designated two Daesh leaders “involved in chemical weapons development.”
The Treasury added both senior Daesh members in Iraq, Attallah Salman ‘Abd Kafi Al-Jaburi and Marwan Ibrahim Hussayn Tah Al-Azawi, to the terrorist list.
Al-Jaburi was identified as “in charge of factories producing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), vehicleborne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), and explosives, and he is involved in the development of chemical weapons,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Al-Azawi was designated in connection with Daesh’s “development of chemical weapons for use in ongoing combat against Iraqi Security Forces.”
This marks “the first designations targeting individuals involved in ISIS’ (Daesh’s) chemical weapons development,” said Treasury official and OFAC Director John E. Smith.
“The Department of the Treasury condemns in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons by any actor, and will leverage all available tools to target those complicit in their development, proliferation, or use.”
Al-Jaburi joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2003, “where he received his knowledge and expertise in developing and fabricating IEDs,” said the Treasury.
Later, he “became an expert in making weapons, received training in chemical weapons in Syria, and later returned to Iraq in 2015.”
As of mid-2016, Al-Jaburi was Daesh’s “chemical weapons and explosives manager located in the Kirkuk Province of Iraq,” and worked “on a chemical weapons project that would be used against the Peshmerga, more commonly known as the Iraqi Kurdish forces, in future attacks.”
Both Al-Jaburi and Al-Azawi were born in 1973 or 1975 in Iraq, according to the statement.
The designation blocks “all property and interests in property of these individuals subject to US jurisdiction,” and “US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”