US sanctions terror groups in Mumbai attacks

The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on two Pakistan-based terrorist organisations and a key leader of recent attacks in Mumbai.

The Treasury Department said it targeted the financial and support networks of Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM).

It also took action against Azam Cheema, saying he had helped train operatives for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and was the "mastermind" behind the July 2006 Mumbai train bombings carried out by LeT.

The targets also included leaders of LeT and JeM, as well as Al Rehmat Trust, an "operational front" for JeM, the department said in a statement.

LeT, with links to Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network, already was designated as a foreign terrorist organization in December 2001, the department noted.

"Today's action -- including the designation of Azam Cheema, one of LeT's leading commanders who was involved in the 2008 and 2006 Mumbai attacks -- is an important step in incapacitating the operational and financial networks of these deadly organizations," Stuart Levey, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.

The sanctions ban all transactions with US citizens and companies and freezes any of the targets' assets under US jurisdiction.

In July 2006, a series of coordinated bombings of trains in Mumbai, India's financial capital, killed nearly 200 people.

A November 2008 attack at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai claimed 31 lives.

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