The United States is committed to using its full set of counterterrorism tools to counter the risk posed by terrorist groupings operating in Afghanistan, including al-Qa’ida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as part of our relentless efforts to ensure that terrorists do not use Afghanistan as a platform for international terrorism.
Yesterday, the Department of State specified four AQIS and TTP leaders as Specially Specified Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Executive Order (E. O. ) 13224, as amended, for their leadership roles within their respective groups:
- Osama Mehmood will be the emir of AQIS
- Atif Yahya Ghouri is the deputy emir associated with AQIS.
- Muhammad Maruf is responsible for AQIS’ recruiting branch.
- Qari Amjad is the deputy emir of TTP. He runs operations and militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
As a result of these types of actions, all property and interests in property of those designated yesterday that are susceptible to U. S. jurisdiction are usually blocked, and all U. S i9000. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with these.
Yesterday’s activities again demonstrate that we can continue to use all relevant tools to uphold our commitment to see to it that international terrorists are not able to operate with impunity in Afghanistan.
