The State Department has designated three more groups as foreign “terrorist” organizations, a move that implies financial and visa penalties on group members.
One of the groups, Usbat al-Ansar, a Sunni Muslim group based in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, is believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, the State Department said Wednesday.
The other groups are the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Algerian group dedicated to the overthrow of that nation's government, and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian group linked to the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The latest designations bring to 33 the number of organization the United States identifies as foreign terrorist organizations, AP reported.
"These designations make it unlawful for persons in the United States or subject to U.S. jurisdiction to provide material support or resources to these groups," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
In a related development, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to its list of groups whose U.S. assets must be frozen. The Treasury had ordered U.S. banks last year to freeze assets belonging to the other groups. (Albawaba.com)
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