US and Turkey slap new sanctions on figures tied to Islamic State

The US says it has worked with Turkey to impose sanctions on four people and two firms that it says provided financial support to the Islamic State group.

The announcement signals counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries at a time of tensions over efforts to fight Islamic State.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control says it is imposing sanctions on an Iraqi national living in Turkey, Abd Al Hamid Salim Ibrahim Ismail Brukan al-Khatuni, his sons and the Turkish money service firm where they all worked. They are accused of facilitating financial transfers to and from Iraq and Syria for the benefit of the Islamic State.

Another individual, Lu’ay Jasim Hammadi al-Juburi, an Islamic State financial administration official also living in Turkey, is accused of using the firm Sham Express, a company founded in 2020 by Brukan al-Khatuni, to transfer funds to IS.

The sanction’s actions freeze and block any potential transactions with US entities and prevent Americans from doing business with them. The State Department notes that Turkey is concurrently freezing the assets of those targeted by the US sanctions.