US sanctions Iranian security forces for rights abuses

The United States said on Thursday it had sanctioned Iran's national police force, its commander, and two other security forces for serious rights violations since Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election.

The sanctions, announced jointly by the US departments of State and Treasury, apply to Iran's Law Enforcement Forces and its commander Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to the Basij Resistance Force. The sanctions would freeze any of the targets' assets under US jurisdiction and bar US persons and institutions from dealing with them. (Reuters)