US, Iraq expel senior IS finance official from systems: US Treasury

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The United States and Iraq have expelled a senior Islamic State (IS) finance official from their financial systems, the US Treasury Department said on Tuesday.

The US Treasury Department identified Salim Mustafa Muhammad al-Mansur, an IS finance official, as a “specially designated terrorist.”

The decision to banish Mansur from financial systems in the US means any property he owned in America would be frozen and also bans Americans from dealing with him, Reuters reported.

Baghdad removed Mansur from their financial systems as well as freezing any assets under its jurisdiction, according to the US Treasury Department.

John E. Smith, the director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control which enforces sanctions, said Washington would work with Iraq to halt IS’ financial arrangements.

“Treasury continues to work in close collaboration with the Government of Iraq to dismantle [IS] financial networks both inside and outside of [IS]-controlled territory,” Smith said.

In 2014, Mansur helped transfer hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dinars to IS militants in Mosul.

The finance official also aided in the laundering and transfer of money for the extremist group and sold oil extracted from Iraq and Syria, the US Treasury Department said.

According to the Treasury, Mansur had moved to Turkey earlier this year but was still in charge of IS’ finances in Mosul.

The Financial Times reported the militant group was spreading its money across various ventures and state lines to maintain its operation after the collapse of its self-proclaimed caliphate.

“They’ll spread that money everywhere, to keep it working for the organization long after the caliphate is gone,” the report said.

With the continuous loss of territory in Iraq and Syria, IS has threatened to focus its efforts on lone-wolf attacks carried out in Europe and other nations belonging to the anti-IS coalition.