U.S. Slaps Sanctions on Businessman Close to Bashar, Maher Assad

The United States on Thursday stepped up the pressure on Syria over its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, imposing sanctions on a businessman close to President Bashar al-Assad and his family.

The move freezes the U.S. assets of Mohammed Hamsho and his company, Hamsho International Group, and prohibits U.S. entities from engaging in any business dealings with them, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The government said Hamsho was "one of Syria's top businessmen" with interests in multiple sectors and a "close business associate" of Assad's brother Maher, serving as a "frontman" for him and a number of his businesses.

"Mohammed Hamsho earned his fortune through his connections to regime insiders," said the U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen.

"During the current unrest, he has cast his lot with Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad and others responsible for the Syrian government's violence and intimidation against the Syrian people," Cohen added.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order in May, imposing targeted sanctions on Assad and several high-ranking Syrian government officials for their bloody crackdown on the country's pro-democracy demonstrators.

Also Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney warned that Assad had put Syria and the Middle East on a "very dangerous path."

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday issued a statement condemning "the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities."

At least 109 people were killed on Thursday in and around the Syrian flashpoint protest city of Hama, the Avaaz global activist group said.

And witnesses and activists said Syrian security forces killed at least 37 people on Wednesday, 30 of them as tanks shelled Hama.