(Archived Content)
JS-2500
Muhammad Yunis Ahmad was designated today pursuant to Executive Order 13315, which is aimed at blocking property of the former Iraqi regime, its senior officials and their family members and those who act for or on their behalf.
According to information available to the U.S. Government, Ahmad is currently a financial facilitator and operational leader of the New Regional Command of the reconstituted Ba'ath Party. He is instrumental in providing guidance, financial support and coordination of insurgent attacks throughout Iraq.
Ahmad was a party to the violence and oppression of the former Hussein regime, said Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI). He still seeks to sabotage the hopes of the Iraqi people by supporting the insurgents' brutal attacks against coalition forces and Iraqis alike. Designations like today's help cut off the money supporting those efforts.
The Iraqi government has charged Ahmad with providing funding, leadership and support to several insurgent groups conducting attacks against the Iraqi people, the Interim Iraqi Government, Iraqi National Guard, the Iraqi Police and Coalition Forces.
Ahmad is first among the U.S. Central Command's list of key insurgent leaders, and the Multi National Forces in Iraq are offering a reward of $1 million for information leading to his capture, said Robert Werner, Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Today's designation is the result of the strong support and coordination of Treasury's interagency partners in the U.S. Government, notably the U.S. Central Command.
Information available to the U.S. Government indicates that Ahmad was a high-ranking member of the former Ba'ath Party in Iraq. Ahmad served as the Governor of the Al-Muthana Governorate prior to the 1990 Gulf War. After the war, he was promoted to a senior Ba'ath Party position in Northern Iraq.
Ahmad is described as a former Ba'ath Party regional command member responsible for party activities in the Salah Ad Din, the Al-Ta'mim and the Al-Sulaymaniyah Governorates. He held this position until the fall of the regime in 2003, when he allegedly fled to Syria and became a senior leader in the insurgency against the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
Ahmad also reportedly has relationships with other senior members of the former Iraqi regime, including Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the former Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Iraq. Al-Duri was previously listed in the Annex to E.O. 13315 and named to the UN 1483 committee list.
Following the CPA's disestablishment of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party after Operation Iraqi Freedom, the party began to reconstitute itself under new leadership. According to information available to the U.S. Government, the reconstituted Iraqi Ba'ath Party was allegedly operating with Al-Duri as the head of the party and Ahmad as his deputy. Recently, Ahmad was reportedly elected General Secretary of this party. U.S. Government information also indicates that Al-Duri headed up the military wing of an anti-Coalition group formed after the fall of the Saddam regime, while Ahmad ran the political wing of the group.
Identifier Information
Muhammad Yunis Ahmad
AKAs: AHMED, Muhammad Yunis
AL-AHMED, Muhammad Yunis
AL-BADRANI, Muhammad Yunis Ahmad
AL-MOALI, Mohammed Yunis Ahmed
DOB: 1949
POB: Al-Mowall, Mosul, Iraq
Nationality: Iraqi
Address: Al-Dawar Street
Bludan, Syria
Address: Damascus, Syria
Address: Mosul, Iraq
Address: Wadi Al-Hawi, Iraq
Address: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Address: Al-Hasaka, Syria
Today's action is taken pursuant to Executive Order 13315 which blocks property and interests in property of senior officials of the former Iraqi regime within the possession or control of U.S. persons. The United States is also submitting the name of this individual to the U.N. with the recommendation they be listed by the 1518 Committee under U.N. Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1483. UNSCR 1483 requires U.N. member states to identify, freeze and transfer to the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) assets of senior officials of the former Iraqi regime and their immediate family members, including entities owned or controlled by them or by persons acting on their behalf.
For more information on additional Treasury actions against the former Iraqi regime, please visit the following links:
Syrian Company, Nationals Designated by Treasury for Support to Former Saddam Hussein Regime
http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/js2487.htm
Treasury Designates 16 Family Members of the Former Iraqi Regime, Submits 191 Iraqi Entities to United Nations
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js1242.htm
Treasury Designates Front Companies, Corrupt Officials Controlled by Saddam Hussein's Regime
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js1331.htm
Uday Saddam Hussein's Inner Circle Designated by Treasury
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js1600.htm
U.S., Iraq, U.K. Jointly Designate Ambassadors Intel Ops of the Former Hussein Regime
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js1821.htm