US, Turkey sanction ISIS smuggling group linked to Istanbul church attack
The Treasury Department said three of the sanctioned individuals were part of a human-smuggling network operating in Turkey.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions Friday on four people over their alleged support of the Islamic State, including an individual Turkish authorities accuse of involvement in a deadly church attack in Istanbul.
According to a Treasury news release, Adam Khamirzaev, who is identified as the Sunni extremist group's leader in Georgia, “provided guidance” to an ISIS human-smuggling network. Khamirzaev is also wanted by Turkish authorities for his alleged involvement in the planning of the militant group's activities in Turkey, including an attack on a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul in January that killed one person.
Also hit by sanctions on Friday is Uzbekistan-based Olimkhon Makhmudjon Ugli Ismailov, who the Treasury said is involved in an ISIS-linked human smuggling network. Muhammad Ibrohimjon Niyazov, who was identified as a supporter of the same network, also “separately provided administrative and logistics support for ISIS members” in Turkey, according to the release.
The Treasury identified the other designee as Muhammadyusuf Alisher Ogli Mirzoev, who was “involved in work to establish an ISIS militant training camp” in 2023.
The Treasury’s top official on terrorism, Brian E. Nelson, said Friday’s designations “were taken in close coordination with” Turkey. Turkey “is concurrently taking its own domestic action against” the militant group’s human smuggling network, he added.
Turkey has ramped up its crackdown on ISIS, particularly the militant group’s Khorasan branch, which is suspected to be behind the attack on Istanbul’s Santa Maria Roman Catholic Church. It was the first of its kind since a mass shooting at an upscale Istanbul nightclub during a New Year’s Eve party in 2017 that killed nearly 40 people.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish authorities detained an Iraqi national over his alleged ties to the group in the central Anatolian province of Kirsehir. The person, who was identified by his initials W.K.K.A.B, might be a distant relative of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a raid by US forces in 2019 in Syria’s Idlib province. One of Baghdadi's daughters, Leila Jabeer, was also captured in 2018.
