May 25, 2012 | Quote
State Department Lists Abdallah Azzam Brigades As Terror Organization
The U.S. State Department said Thursday it designated the Abdallah Azzam Brigades, or AAB, as a foreign terrorist organization.
AAB, based in both Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula, is responsible for numerous rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, the State Department said. The group, through its Arabian branch, carried out an attack in July 2010 on a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
AAB’s bomb maker, Abu Jabal, was placed under sanctions in November 2011, while the group’s leader, Saleh al-Qarawi, was sanctioned a month later.
The State Department said AAB has repeatedly articulated its intent to carry out attacks against Western interests in the Middle East, including expressing its interest in kidnapping U.S. and British tourists in the Arabian Peninsula.
AAB was formed sometime in 2004 as an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq, according to a background in the Long War Journal.
Separately, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control made a series of removals from the blacklists it maintains. See the full list here.