WASHINGTON - The US Treasury Department on Thursday targeted Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) by focusing on a Syria-based militant through an executive order to freeze his assets under US jurisdiction.
The operative, known as Abu Khalef, acts "on behalf of AQI by serving as a senior leader of AQI's Syria-based facilitation network," the US department charged.
"We will continue to aggressively implement the international obligation to target Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, like Abu Khalef, who threaten the safety of Coalition Forces and the stability of Iraq," said Stuart Levey, the US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
Before his position leading the AQI foreign network, Khalef was second in command of the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria, the US Treasury said in a statement. The group has claimed responsibility for a number of major attacks and mass kidnap campaigns.
The agency also charged that Khalef "transported terrorists from Syria to Iraq," worked on AQI recruitment in North Africa and facilitated the movement of "suicide operatives" from Gulf-based extremist networks.
Executive Order 13224, designed to both target the operatives and those who support them, can have a "far reaching impact," Levey has said.
"Even though individual terrorist attacks are relatively inexpensive to carry out, it costs a great deal of money for Al-Qaeda to operate globally," he noted in January.
"Designations have a far reaching impact, deterring would-be donors from providing financial support to terrorism and leaving Al-Qaeda leadership struggling to identify much-needed funding resources."