U.S. Department of the Treasury

 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated improvised explosive devices (IED) facilitator Abdul Samad Achekzai (Samad) for acting for or on behalf of the Taliban pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224.  Samad was also added to the United Nations 1988 list of individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with the Taliban in constituting a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan, on March 1, 2012.

 

This is the first sanctions action specifically targeting the Taliban’s IED manufacturer and support network.  Samad, as recently as mid-2010, was responsible for and tasked with IED component procurement and storage, detonator construction and IED training in support of Taliban fighters in western and southern Afghanistan.

 

Samad has also participated in attacks in Afghanistan on behalf of the Taliban. As of early 2011, Samad was working with a Taliban member to assassinate an Afghan Border Police commander and had recruited a suicide bomber for the operation. Additionally, in early 2011, Samad deployed five suicide bombers to Afghanistan to conduct attacks on Coalition Forces and Afghan authorities. In early 2010, Samad sent five Taliban suicide bombers to Qandahar to target Afghan authorities.

 

“As a key official in the Taliban’s IED supply network, Abdul Samad Achekzai is responsible for untold death and suffering.  IEDs are the leading cause of casualties among coalition troops and civilians in Afghanistan and we must do everything in our power to expose and disrupt the purveyors of these deadly devices,” said Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury’s OFAC.

 

E.O. 13268 of July 2, 2002 amended the Annex to E.O. 13224 to include the Taliban as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Since then the Treasury Department has worked diligently to identify and cut off members of the Taliban from the global financial system. Treasury will continue to work with interagency partners to isolate the Taliban and global terrorist organizations from the international financial system and ensure that their access to funds to carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere is severely hampered.

 

As a result of today’s action, all property in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which Abdul Samad Achekzai has an interest is blocked, and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with him.

 

 

Name:              ABDUL SAMAD ACHEKZAI

AKA:              Abdul Samad

DOB:              1970

Nationality:     Afghan

Address:          Balochistan Province, Pakistan

 

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