CNN
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An Israeli airstrike near the Lebanese-Syrian border has killed a prominent Syrian businessman who was under US sanctions, local media reported on Monday.
According to the Syrian state-run newspaper Al-Watan, Mohammed Baraa Katarji was killed when his car was attacked while he was driving on the Al-Saboura highway near Damascus.
Qatariji was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2018 and was on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list for aiding “the transportation of fuel and weapons to the Syrian regime.”
According to OFAC, Khatirji and his companies facilitated fuel trade between the regime and ISIS and supplied petroleum products to ISIS-controlled territory.
“A trade agreement signed in 2016 between the Syrian government and ISIS identified Qatirj as the exclusive agent for supplying ISIS-controlled territory with goods, including oil and other materials,” OFAC said.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department website, Katarji worked closely with Syrian government officials, including at the Ministries of Oil and Trade.
Katarji and his two brothers, Zahed and Husam (who are also sanctioned by OFAC), founded a militia that fought alongside the Syrian regime in Aleppo in 2016. They are also accused of having ties to Hezbollah.
According to OFAC, earlier this year, Tawfik Mohammed Saeed Al-Law, a Syrian money exchanger based in Lebanon, provided Hezbollah with a cryptocurrency digital wallet to make transfers on behalf of the Qatirj Company.
Earlier in April, Lebanon’s interior minister said the kidnapping and murder of a Lebanese money exchanger with ties to Hezbollah at his villa on the outskirts of a quiet mountain resort was likely the work of Israeli agents.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the attack but has not yet received a response.