U.S. sanctions target Islamic State’s support network

Reporting from Washington —  The Obama administration sought Tuesday to choke off support for Islamic State, imposing sanctions on 25 individuals and five Islamist groups, in the latest push to constrain an extremist army that continues to recruit thousands of foreign fighters to its cause.

Those listed as global terrorists included alleged financiers, facilitators, propagandists and operatives from across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as several British, French and Russian citizens in Syria.

The list was released as President Obama addressed leaders and representatives of more than 100 countries at a special United Nations summit in New York on countering the militant group Islamic State, which has captured large parts of Iraq and Syria, and other forms of violent extremism.

Even as leaders vowed to improve coordination of counter-terrorism operations, Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing an Italian aid worker Monday in Bangladesh, the first such attack in the South Asian nation.

In his comments, Obama claimed some success by the two dozen or so countries that began bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria last year. They have launched more than 7,200 airstrikes.

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Obama acknowledged that the Sunni militants continue to hold several major Iraqi cities, including Mosul, Fallouja and Ramadi. But he said the group has “lost nearly a third of the populated areas in Iraq that it had controlled” as well as “large sections of northeastern Syria.”

“There are going to be successes and there are going to be setbacks,” he said. “This is not a conventional battle. This is a long-term campaign.”

The latest evidence came in a congressional report released Tuesday that suggests international efforts launched at the U.N. last year have largely failed to stop foreign fighters, including Americans, from making their way to Syria and Iraq.

Nearly 30,000 fighters from 100 countries have gone to the war zone since 2011, according to a six-month study by the House Committee on Homeland Security.

That’s an increase of about 8,000 in the last six months, according to U.S. counter-terrorism officials.

About 250 U.S. citizens and permanent residents have traveled or tried to travel to Syria and Iraq to join militant forces, the officials said. The total includes about 70 in the last six months, the officials said.

“Of the hundreds of Americans who have sought to travel to the battlefield in Syria and Iraq, authorities have failed to interdict the majority of them,” the report states. “Several dozen have also managed to make it back to America.”

Those designated as global terrorists Tuesday by the Treasury Department and the State Department are accused of helping the militants raise, transfer or hide its money, as well as launch attacks on the West. The sanctions freeze their overseas assets, if any, and prevent them from using the international financial system.

Since most Islamic State funds apparently flow through the black market, it’s unclear whether the sanctions will have much effect. Only a small fraction of the group’s wealth comes from foreign donors or fundraising overseas.

U.S. officials say Islamic State takes in about $500 million a year from illicit oil sales. It raises additional money by imposing fees and taxes in areas it controls, using extortion and kidnapping, and looting banks and other institutions.

One of those listed, British citizen Sally Jones, reportedly published a “hit list” online to encourage attacks on American military personnel. In August, she urged supporters to conduct attacks in Britain, posting guidance on how to build homemade bombs.

Another British national, Aqsa Mahmood, reportedly persuaded three British schoolgirls to leave the country in February to marry Islamic State fighters.

A French national named Maxime Hauchard was said to be among the militants who appeared in a November 2014 video that depicted the beheadings of several Syrian soldiers and showed the severed head of Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker from Indiana, one of several American hostages killed.

The State Department also announced a $5-million reward for information that helps stop Islamic State’s sale of oil or antiquities on the black market. It is the first time a reward has been offered for information about illegal sales by a terrorist organization.

Officials hope the reward will encourage informants to share details about Islamic State’s smuggling networks, methods and routes.

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