2 terrorists sanctioned; 1 plotted to bomb US troops, other fueled Iraq insurgents

US slaps sanctions on al-Qaida-linked terrorists

WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed new sanctions on a close associate of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network who helped smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq, and a German jailed for plotting to bomb American military personnel in Germany.

The Treasury Department said it is freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of Ahmad Khalaf Shabib al-Dulaymi for allegedly supporting the al-Qaida organization, including acting as an intermediary between al-Qaida members and its leaders close to bin Laden.

Treasury said he also supported al-Qaida by assisting flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and recruited people to smuggle money and weapons into Iraq from Syria. Al-Dulaymi is suspected of managing two al-Qaida network cells, including one in Romania that provided financing to the terrorists by smuggling cigarettes and coffee.

In addition, the U.S. has frozen the assets of German national Atilla Selek, who was convicted in Germany last month in connection with plots to bomb U.S. military installations and other sites in Germany.

The Treasury Department said he is a member of the Islamic Jihad Union, and he traveled to Pakistan in July 2006 to receive training in an IJU camp there.

In December 2008 he was charged in Germany with being a member of a terror organization and preparing a crime using explosives. He was sentenced to five years in prison.