Washington: The United States Tuesday slapped financial sanctions on a Yemeni company and its two owners accused of funnelling money to the militant Islamist group Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
The AQAP group allegedly used the company, known as Al Omji and Brothers Money Exchange, to make and receive payments throughout Yemen, the US Treasury said in a statement.
The company also recently pledged to provide AQAP with a 10 per cent commission on all of its transactions.
The US imposed sanctions on the company’s two owners — Saeed Saleh Abd Rabbo Al Omji and Mohammad Salih Abd Rabbo Al Omji, an alleged AQAP member.
Saeed Al Omji has raised funds to support recruitment and training of Yemenis to join Iraqi insurgents, while Al Omji had reportedly provided weapons to AQAP, the Treasury said.
The sanctions are part of a Treasury effort to cut off financing to the group and “degrade AQAP’s capabilities to execute violent attacks,” senior Treasury official Adam J. Szubin said.
AQAP was behind a number of attacks on US and Saudi targets, including in 2009 when a passenger aboard a US-bound flight tried to set off a bomb sewn into his underwear.
The State Department designated AQAP as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2010.
Treasury said with the latest actions it has frozen any of the Yemeni company’s US assets and blocked any transactions with it.
The UAE Central Bank also recently took steps to freeze the company out of the UAE financial system, the Treasury said.
