ANKARA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish Treasury and Finance Ministry decided to freeze the assets of eight people affiliated with Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda groups, according to its official gazette published on Tuesday.
Their assets were frozen over "financing terrorism," the gazette said. The people being sanctioned are Abdulsamet Celik, Amer Onay, Ensari Ersoy, Muhammed Korkmaz, Murat Demir, Sevda Vural, Tarkan Nigdelioglu and Sinan Oksuz.
The Turkish government designated the IS a terrorist organization in 2013, blaming it for a spate of deadly attacks in the country since 2015.
Türkiye's southern border with Syria has been a major crossing point for Syrians and foreign fighters since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.
The Turkish military launched several cross-border operations in northern Syria to eliminate the IS militants. On April 29, it killed the IS leader, Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi, in an operation in Syria. ■
