Washington: The United States on Thursday officially branded Islamist firebrand Abu Bakar Bashir's Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid group as a foreign terrorist organisation, tying it to multiple attacks in Indonesia.
The US Treasury announced that it was placing sanctions on three leading members of the group after it was designated as a terrorist organisation by the State Department.
The three people named under the sanctions, which prevent US citizens and businesses from conducting any transactions with them, were JAT acting emir Mochammad Achwan, spokesman Son Hadi bin Muhadjir, and recruiter and fundraiser Abdul Rosyid Ridho Ba'asyir.
The US "is taking another step to ensure that terrorists are cut off from the international financial system and find it ever more difficult to carry out their acts of violence, no matter where they are based," said Treasury official Adam Szubin.
PTI
First Published: Friday, February 24, 2012, 11:43