The U.S. Treasury Department on November 10 imposed sanctions on four leaders of Al-Qaeda's offshoot in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front.
The Al-Nusra Front has been at the center of a dispute between the United States and Russia, which claims Washington has sheltered the militants because they coordinate with Syrian rebel groups the United States is backing in the war against Syria's regime.
But the Treasury Department's action confirms that the United States still deems the Al-Nusra Front a terrorist organization. The sanctions are aimed at disrupting its military, recruitment, and financing activities by barring U.S. citizens from doing business with the sanctioned individuals.
The U.S. State Department also put Jabhat Fatah al-Sham -- the new name that the Al-Nusra Front adopted this summer in an effort to change its image -- on its terror "blacklist" as an Al-Nusra "alias."
The four leaders targeted by the Treasury Department are Abdallah Muhammad bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini, who it said is involved in recruiting fighters for the group in northern Syria; Jamal Husayn Zayniyah, who is responsible for planning operations in Syria and Lebanon; Abdul Jashari, a military adviser who has helped raise funds for the families of Al-Nusra fighters; and Ashraf Ahmad Fari al-Allak, a military commander.
