Washington Adds “Yarmouk Martyrs” Armed Group to Its List of Terrorist Organizations

WASHINGTON, (ST)- The United States has added the so-called “Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade” (YMB) to its list of terrorist organizations.

 The US Department of State said in a statement  on Thursday that the US government has “designated the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade (YMB) as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.”  

The State Department clarified that as a result of this designation, all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which the YMB has any interest is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the YMB, which was formed in August 2012 in Deraa, Syria.

 According to the statement, the decision to add the YMB to the list of terrorist organizations was because the YMB has staged attacks throughout southern Syria.

“It distinguished itself from other groups in Syria through kidnapping operations targeting UN personnel, including the March 2013 abduction of 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers and the May 2013 capture of another four Filipino peacekeepers from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,”  the statement said.

It added that the group cooperated closely with al-Nusra Front terrorist organization through 2014, but it has since pledged allegiance to the so-called “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL).

Washington’s reasons for designating YMB as a terror group confirms once again the US double standard policy and continuous attempts to politicize the fight against international terrorism.

 Almost a month ago, the United States aborted a Russian bid at the Security Council to blacklist “Ahrar al-Sham” and “Jaysh al-Islam” armed groups, ignoring all the massacres and terrorist acts committed by these two groups against the civilians in different Syrian provinces.

Hamda Mustafa