US says South Africans assisted al Qaeda

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) The US Treasury Department named two South African cousins as al Qaeda financiers and facilitators, ordering a freeze on any US assets they may have and banning Americans from doing business with them.

The Treasury, invoking an executive order used to combat terrorist financing and money laundering activities, said Farhad Ahmed Dockrat provided funds to a trust used by al Qaeda, and his cousin, Junaid Ismail Dockrat, helped facilitate travel of South Africans to Pakistan for al Qaeda training.

The action ends days of speculation about the two Muslim cousins after a South African Foreign Ministry spokesman said Johannesburg was in talks with Washington over their being placed on a UN list of people with suspected al Qaeda ties.

''This designation freezes the Dockrats out of the US financial system and notifies the international community of the dangerous conduct in which the Dockrats are engaged,'' said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement.

The Treasury said Farhad Dockrat in 2001 provided more than 62,900 dollars to the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan to be forwarded to al Akhtar Trust, an Afghanistan-based entity that the Treasury previously designated as an al Qaeda fund-raising arm.

It said Junaid Dockrat in 2004 worked via phone and e-mail with the late al Qaeda operations chief Abu Hamza Rabia to coordinate the travel of South Africans to Pakistan in order for them to train with al Qaeda.

The Treasury said Junaid Dockrat, who used the alias ''Sniper Outdoor CC,'' also was responsible for raising 120,000 dollars that Rabia received in the spring of 2004.

REUTERS SI RK2238