The State Department has identified a French chemical weapons expert as a “specially designated global terrorist” who helped the Islamic State terror group build and deploy chemical weapons on the battlefield in Syria, Washington Times reports.
A statement released by the department Thursday announced the leveling of U.S. sanctions against Joe Asperman, effectively freezing any assets he may have in the American financial system and barring all U.S. citizens from any transactions with him.
The statement offered few details about Mr. Asperman, beyond identifying him a French citizen and asserting that the sanctions are designed to deny him resources to plan and carry out future terrorist attacks.
“French national Joe Asperman is a senior chemical weapons expert for ISIS,” it said. “Asperman oversaw chemical operations production within Syria for ISIS and the deployment of these chemical weapons at the battlefront.”
There was no immediate comment from French authorities and it was not clear when Mr. Asperman is accused of being active with the Islamic State group, which has lost nearly all of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq over the past year.