U.S. designates suspected Norwegian al Qaeda member a ‘terrorist’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Norwegian citizen suspected of joining al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and receiving bomb-making training during visits to Yemen has been named a “specially designated global terrorist” by the U.S. government, the State Department said on Tuesday.

Anders Cameroon Ostenvig Dale, also known as Muslim Abu Abdurrahman and Abu Abdurrahman the Norwegian, was designated under an executive order that “targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism,” the department said.

Secretary of State John Kerry said in a public notice that Dale “committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States.”

The order prevents U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions with Dale and freezes any assets he may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

Dale, whose whereabouts were not immediately clear, also was added on Tuesday to the counter-terrorism list maintained by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The State Department said in a statement that Dale was a Norwegian citizen who travelled to Yemen to join al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in 2008 and returned many times through December 2011, receiving training in making bomb-belts, improvised explosives and explosives used in car bombs.

The Norwegian government did not immediately comment on the State Department decision.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)