US imposes sanctions on Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Six others

The United States has imposed its first ever sanctions against the  Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad and six other senior officials for human rights abuses, committed during the suppression of antigovernment protests. Any asset they may have in the US or which fall in the American jurisdiction will be frozen. It is not every day that the US imposes sanctions on the president of another country. Even Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's Kim Jong-Il have escaped that fate, but Washington now believe that President Bashar al-Assad is personally responsive for the violent crackdown against Syrian protesters calling for more freedom. The US Treasury department said the move was an unequivocal message to the Syrian president and Syrian leadership that they will be held accountable for the violence and the repression. The other six senior officials affected are:
    * Vice-President Farouk al-Sharaa
    * Prime Minister Adel Safar
    * Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar
    * Defence Minister Ali Habib
    * Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, the head of Military intelligence
    * Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, the head of the Political Security Directorate