US sanctions businessman helping Syrian government buy oil from Islamic State

The US Treasury Department said in a statement that it had also sanctioned three other individuals for providing support to the Syrian government, and businesses linked to them, including a Russian bank.

The measures, the latest round of sanctions related to the ongoing civil war in Syria, freeze any US assets and prohibit Americans from transactions with the targets.

Islamic State, which has been described by US officials as the wealthiest terrorist group of its kind, is believed to derive much of its funding from oil fields seized from the Syrian government. IS sells the oil through long-standing smuggling networks, experts and officials say.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has also agreed to purchase IS oil, a Treasury official said last year.

The US Treasury said it was targeting Syrian businessman George Haswani, who it said "serves as a middleman" for oil purchases by the Syrian government from Islamic State. His company, an engineering and construction firm, was also sanctioned.

The European Union sanctioned Haswani in March, and at the time, he denied the accusation that he bought oil from IS militants for the Syrian government, telling Reuters by phone that the EU had no evidence to back up the claim and should instead look for intermediaries he said were smuggling oil to Turkey on Islamic State's behalf.

The United States has used financial and military tools to target the finances of Islamic State, which this month took credit for a coordinated assault on Paris that left 130 people dead. Last month, the US military launched air strikes concentrating on the group's oil facilities in Syria in a campaign dubbed "Tidal Wave II."

Defense officials estimate the group was earning US$47 million in oil sales prior to October and that the campaign has reduced that amount by about 30%.