US slaps sanctions on three IS recruiters, including 1 Filipino

WASHINGTON - The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on three men from Southeast Asia, one of them a Filipino citizen, who it says were recruiters for the Islamic State and appeared in a beheading video for the militant group.

The action freezes their access to the US financial system.

The US move against Mohammed Karim Yusop Faiz, an Indonesian, Mohamad Rafi Udin, a Malaysian national, and Mohammad Reza Lahaman Kiram, a citizen of the Philippines, come one day after the United Nations also imposed sanctions on the men, subjecting them to an asset freeze and travel ban.

US Treasury Undersecretary Sigal Mandelker said in a statement the sanctions were "part of a coordinated effort to counter ISIS's (Islamic State) global networks that enable the group to recruit foreign fighters to conduct international terrorist attacks."

Two of the men were involved in militant groups before joining the Islamic State and traveling to Syria.

The third, Faiz, had been imprisoned in the Philippines for nine years on charges of illegal possession of explosives and weapons, the Treasury Department said. — Reuters