US slaps sanctions against Afghanistan-Pakistan based terror group

The US on Wednesday designated a splinter group of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and a suspect in the Brussels and Paris attacks known as "the man in the hat" as global terrorists, blocking any US assets they may have.

As a result of these designations, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Europe-based Mohamed Abrini have any interest is blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them, the State Department said.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is a splinter group of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan based in the Af-Pak border region. The group, founded by a former TTP leader in August 2014, has staged multiple attacks in the region targeting civilians, religious minorities, military personnel, and law enforcement, and was responsible for the killing of two Pakistani employees of the US Consulate in Peshawar in March 2016.

In March 2016, JuA carried out the suicide assault at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal amusement park in Lahore, Pakistan that killed more than 70 people nearly half of them women and children. The Easter Sunday attack was the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan since December 2014.

Abrini is a member of the Europe-based Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) cell responsible for the November 2015 Paris attacks and March 2016 Brussels attacks. Since his arrest on April 8 by Belgian authorities, Abrini has been identified as being "the man in white" also known as "the man in the hat" seen with two identified suicide bombers at Brussel s Zaventem airport on March 22, just minutes before the attack that killed 16 people.

Abrini is also believed to have taken part in the pre-attack surveillance for the November 2015 Paris attacks and to have assisted in planning attacks in the UK and Germany, the State Department said.