CNN
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An Israeli airstrike near the Lebanese-Syrian border killed a prominent Syrian businessman who was subject to US sanctions, local media reported on Monday.
Mohammad Baraa Qatarji died when the attack hit the car he was driving on the Al-Saboura highway near Damascus, the Syrian state-run Al-Watan newspaper reported.
Qatarji was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2018 and was on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list for facilitating “fuel and arms shipments to the Syrian regime.”
According to OFAC, Qatirji and his company had facilitated fuel trade between the regime and ISIS and supplied oil products to ISIS-controlled areas.
“A 2016 trade agreement between the Syrian government and ISIS designated Qatirji as the sole agent for supplying oil and other commodities to ISIS-controlled areas,” OFAC said.
According to the US Treasury Department website, Qatarji maintained close cooperation with Syrian government officials, including the Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Commerce.
Qatarji and his two brothers Zahed and Hussam – who are also subject to OFAC sanctions – founded a militia that fought alongside the Syrian regime in Aleppo in 2016. They are also accused of having links to Hezbollah.
According to OFAC, Lebanon-based Syrian money changer Tawfiq Muhammad Sa’id al-Law provided Hezbollah with cryptocurrency digital wallets earlier this year to conduct wire transfers on behalf of the Qatirji Company.
At the beginning of April, the Lebanese Interior Minister announced that a Lebanese money changer linked to Hezbollah had been kidnapped and killed in a villa on the outskirts of a quiet mountain resort. The crime was probably the work of Israeli intelligence agents.
CNN has contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the attack but has not yet received a response.
