The Treasury also
sanctioned two armed militia groups that operate under the control of
the Syrian government, Jaysh al-Sha'bi and Shabiha, it said.
Syrian opposition groups
have voiced their opposition to the U.S. move against the rebel
fighters, suggesting that they are being targeted because they oppose a
new anti-government coalition.
In recent months, the
radical Islamist al-Nusra Front has emerged as one of the most effective
groups in the Syrian resistance, drawing on foreign fighters with
combat experience in Iraq and elsewhere.
But Washington accuses the group of using the Syrian conflict to advance its own ideology and ends.
State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed Tuesday that al-Nusra Front had
been added to the list of aliases for al Qaeda in Iraq, already
designated a foreign terrorist organization.
She said the group had
claimed nearly 600 attacks in the past year, including suicide bombings,
in several cities and was responsible for the deaths of "numerous
innocent Syrians."
Al-Nusra "has sought to
portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition while it is,
in fact, an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people
for its own malign purposes," she said.
The designation makes it
illegal for any U.S. citizen to give "material support or resources" to
al-Nusra fighters, including money, training and weapons.
The Treasury's financial
sanctions also target two senior al-Nusra leaders named as Maysar Ali
Musa Abdallah al-Juburi and Anas Hasan Khattab.
The measure means that
any assets they may hold in the United States are blocked and that U.S.
citizens are barred from doing business with them.
Two Shabiha commanders,
named as Ayman Jaber and Mohammad Jaber, were also designated by the
Treasury Department alongside the two pro-government militia groups.
Its statement said the
Shabiha have "operated as a direct action arm of the government of Syria
and its security services," working alongside its intelligence
services, and have been "complicit in the commission of human rights
abuses in Syria, including those related to repression."
"Since the beginning of
the unrest, the Shabiha have fired into crowds of peaceful Syrian
demonstrators, shot and killed Syrian demonstrators, arbitrarily
detained Syrian civilians, and shot Syrian soldiers who refused to fire
on peaceful demonstrators," it said.
The Jaysh al-Sha'bi
militia has "conducted unilateral and joint operations with Syrian
military and security elements against the Syrian opposition" that have
led to the deaths of opposition members, the statement said.
It accuses Iran of training, funding and arming the Jaysh al-Sha'bi militia.
Washington's move comes a day ahead of a Friends of Syria meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Morocco.
The goal of the
designation is to isolate extremist groups in Syria while giving a boost
to the new political opposition group unveiled last month in Doha,
Qatar, U.S. officials said last week.
Al-Nusra and several
other groups last month announced their opposition to the National
Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, a new
anti-government coalition. U.S. officials estimate al-Nusra members
represent about 9% of rebel forces in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, a London-based opposition group, said fighters from
the al-Nusra Front were among rebel forces who it says have seized
control of a government military base in the Sheikh Sleiman area of
western Reef Aleppo.
But their designation as
a foreign terrorist group isn't being made on the grounds of past or
possible future actions, according to the Observatory's Rami
Abdelrahman.
"The United States
decided to single out the Nusra Front because of their recent rejection
to the political opposition front and (because) they have a different
approach to post-Assad's Syria," he told CNN.
Syrian Minister of
Information Omran al-Zoubi told Lebanese al-Manar TV on Monday that
Damascus understood why Washington wanted to blacklist the al-Nusra
Front.
"When the U.S. places
Jabhat al-Nusra on the international terrorist organizations list, that
is because it realizes the nature of these groups which are fighting the
Syrian armed forces," he said.
Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad has characterized the nearly 21 months of violence that have
ravaged his country as a fight against terrorism.
But the Syrian National
Council, a largely expatriate opposition group, on Sunday voiced its
"full rejection of any accusation of extremism and terrorism to any of
the forces that are fighting the Syrian regime."
Any accusations made
against factions within the Free Syrian Army, which brings together
disparate groups, were intended to cause division within its ranks and
between its forces and the Syrian people, it said.
"Terrorism is a characteristic that can only be attributed to the Syrian regime," it said.
U.S. officials have
previously said the jihadist al-Nusra Front has not affiliated itself
publicly with al Qaeda in an apparent effort to appear more mainstream.
The group has claimed responsibility for complex attacks in Damascus and
Aleppo, frequently involving suicide bombers.
CNN is unable to confirm casualty reports as the government has severely restricted access by international journalists.
The meeting in Morocco
this week follows a renewed international push for a diplomatic solution
to the crisis in Syria, amid concerns about the potential use of
chemical weapons.
U.S. Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta told reporters Tuesday, however, that intelligence about
new attempts by Syrian government forces to move chemical weapons "has
really kind of leveled off."
U.S. officials said last
week that they had seen intelligence suggesting that Syrian military
units might be preparing chemical weapons for use, prompting strong
warnings from international figures.
"We haven't seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way," Panetta said.
"But we continue to
monitor it very closely, and we continue to make clear to them that they
should not under any means make use of these chemical weapons against
their own population. That would produce serious consequences."
Panetta said he would
like to believe that al-Assad has gotten the message: "we've made it
pretty clear and others have as well."
But, he added, "You know
it's also clear that the opposition continues to make gains in Syria,
and our concern is that if they feel like the regime is threatened with
collapse that they might resort to these kinds of weapons."
President Barack Obama has said that any use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line," eliciting a swift U.S. reaction.
Syrian state-run media said Monday that the United States has falsely accused Syria of considering the use of chemical weapons.
Meanwhile, the United
Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said Tuesday that it had either
registered or was in the process of registering more than half a million
Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and North Africa. The
numbers are climbing by more than 3,000 per day, said spokeswoman
Melissa Fleming.
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