US adds two Hezbollah terrorists to sanctions list 

Two Hezbollah members have been named Specially Designated Global Terrorists. 

The Obama administration says it has added two senior Hezbollah members to its terrorism sanctions list.

The State Department said Monday that Ali Damush and Mustafa Mughniyeh have been named Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

The Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) is authorized under US Executive Order on persons and groups determined to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.

Consequences include a prohibition against US persons engaging in transactions or dealings with Damush and Mughniyeh and the freezing of all of their property and interests in property in the US, among other orders.

Mughniyeh is a Hezbollah commander with extensive family links to the Lebanon-based terror group. He’s the nephew of Hezbollah’s previous military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in an explosion near the Syrian capital in last year, and the son of military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who died in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus that Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

Damush is an aide to the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. He heads the group’s foreign relations department, which the State Department says “engages in covert terrorist operations around the world,” including recruiting terrorist operatives and gathering intelligence.

“The imposition of sanctions by the United States against terrorists like Damush and Mughniyeh is a powerful tool,” the State Department said in a statement. The action “notifies the US public and the international community that Ali Damush and Mustafa Mughniyeh are actively engaged in terrorism. Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system. Moreover, designations can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other US agencies and other governments.”

By: AP and World Israel News Staff