The United States has added the Daesh (the so-called IS) group's branches in Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia to its global terrorism blacklist and placed six men on its sanctions list. The three Daesh branches were declared "specially designated global terrorists," a category that imposes sanctions and penalties on foreign persons who pose a serious risk of committing acts of terrorism that threaten US nationals or national security, the State Department said. The designations freeze any US assets the groups may have and make it illegal for any American national to knowingly provide those groups or conspire to provide them with material support or resources. The State Department said the three groups emerged as Daesh branches in November 2014. The militant group's Yemen branch claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in March 2015 against two mosques in Sanaa, killing more than 120 people. The Daesh affiliate in Saudi Arabia attacked mosques in the Kingdom and Kuwait, killing more than 50. And the group's Libyan affiliate is blamed for kidnapping and executing 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, as well as killing scores of others. The sanctions target "financiers and facilitators responsible for moving money, weapons and people on behalf of these terrorist organizations," said Adam Szubin, the Treasury's acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
