Washington: Cracking the whip on the Haqqani network in Pakistan, the US has slapped sanctions on five of its top operatives to choke their fund-raising activities, days after America's top commander dubbed the dreaded terror outfit a "veritable arm" of the ISI.
The individuals slapped sanctions are Hajji Faizullah Noorzai, a prominent Taliban financier, his brother Hajji Malik Noorzai; Abdur Rehman, a Taliban facilitator; and Fazal Rahim, a financier of Al Qaeda.
"These financiers and facilitators provide the fuel for the Taliban, Haqqani Network and al Qaeda to realise their violent aspirations," Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S Cohen said.
"That is why we are taking these actions today and will continue our relentless efforts to choke off streams of financial and other support to terrorists," he added.
As a result of the sanctions, US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with the designees, and any assets they may hold under US jurisdiction are frozen, the Department of Treasury said in a statement.
The US is currently weighing designating the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organisation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week.
"We are in the final formal review that has to be undertaken to make a government-wide decision to designate the network as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation," she had said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen last Friday told US Congress that that Haqqani network was a "veritable arm" of the Pakistani spy agency ISI, which he said supported the militants in a recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
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