WASHINGTON: The spokesman for ISIS and an Algerian member of the Nusra Front in Syria have been placed on the U.S. terrorist list, the State Department said Monday.
Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, the ISIS spokesman, was placed on the list after announcing June 30 the establishment of a caliphate in territory the group controls in northern Iraq and Syria.
Adnani, whose real name is Taha Sobhi Falaha, also exhorted ISIS followers to take Baghdad in videos posted on the Internet.
He was born in 1977 in Binnish near Aleppo in northern Syria.
Adnani was added to the U.S. terrorist list after the U.N. Security Council approved sanctions against him Friday.
The U.S. action bars Americans from engaging in transactions with Adnani and freezes any assets he may have in the United States.
The same measure was applied to Said Arif, an Algerian considered a top recruiter of foreign fighters in Syria, including a number of French nationals.
He also was sanctioned by the United Nations for his ties to the Nusra Front.