U.N. Security Council adds Islamic State satellite to terror blacklist

May 15 (UPI) -- The United Nations Security Council has added an offshoot of the Islamic State terror group to a sanctions blacklist, due to links to Al-Qaeda and dozens of terrorist attacks it's accused of carrying out in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The council denounced the satellite group, called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K), and added it Tuesday to the ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions List. The council said the militant group was formed four years ago by a former commander of the Pakistani Taliban and has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.

The listing says ISIL-K helps finance and plan terrorist activities in conjunction with al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The group is now subject to asset freezes, travel bans and an arms embargo. From 2015 to 2017, more than 60 attacks in Afghanistan killed more than 160 people.

"We welcome the move by the U.N. to put the terrorists on its backlists and we hope that this process will continue so that no terror group is able to operate freely," Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi said.

"All groups which are fighting against the brave Afghan security forces, in our perspective, they are terrorists, and those which have a role in destabilizing Afghanistan are also terrorists," he added.