WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2018) The United States imposed new sanctions against an Indonesian, a Filipino and Malaysian who lured recruits to the Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia) and took part in a beheading video in Syria, the Treasury Department said in a press release on Friday.
"The US Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today by designating three senior Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) recruiters: Mohamad Rafi Udin (Udin), Mohammed Karim Yusop Faiz (Faiz), and Mohammad Reza Lahaman Kiram (Kiram). Udin, Faiz, and Kiram have urged individuals in Southeast Asia to join ISIS and were featured in an official ISIS beheading video, where they executed captives held by ISIS," the release said.
Udin is believed to be the most senior Islamic State operative from Malaysia operating in Syria, the Treasury said. The Malaysian national traveled to the middle Eastern country in 2014 after previously fighting on behalf of Jemaah Islamiya, a designated Southeast Asian terrorist organization, the Treasury said.
Faiz, an Indonesian national, also traveled to Syria in 2014, after serving nine years in prison in the Philippines on charges of illegal possession of explosives, the Treasury said.
Kiram, a citizen of the Philippines, traveled to Syria with his wife and daughter in 2015 after pledging allegiance to Islamic State terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. Police in the Philippines believe Kiram was responsible for a bus bombing in the city of Zamboanga in 2012, the release said.
In June 2016, all three men appeared in a propaganda video in which they beheaded three prisoners held by the Islamic State and urged others to join the terrorist group, the Treasury said.
Earlier this week, the United Nations Security Council designated the three individuals for acting on behalf of the terrorist group. The United Nations designations require all member states to deny the three men access to international financial system, prevent their travel, and freeze their assets, the release added.
