French-Swiss Company Admits Funding Militants in Syria

Rasa - French-Swiss construction company LafargeHolcim Group admitted funding militants in Syria, saying that the company funded the militants in order to ensure the security of its employees at a plant in Northeastern Syria.

News ID: 427814

Date: 02 March 2017 - 23:39

RNA - "It appears from the internal investigation that the local company provided funds to third parties to work out arrangements with a number of these armed groups, including sanctioned parties, in order to maintain operations and ensure safe passage of employees and supplies to and from the plant," the company said in a press release, Le Monde reported.

"The investigation could not establish with certainty the ultimate recipients of funds beyond those third parties engaged,"  the press release noted.

According to the document, the branch management seemed to have acted the way they did hoping to protect the company and its employees, although "in hindsight, the measures required to continue operations at the plant were unacceptable."

In June 2016, Le Monde said the Lafarge cement factory indirectly financed ISIL between spring 2013 and September 2014, with the board having paid taxes to ISIL militants, who had captured neighboring towns and roads, to ensure the enterprise's work during the Syrian war.

The plant stopped its work in Syria on September 19, 2014.

Since 2011, Syria has been engaged in war on terrorism, with government forces fighting against numerous opposition and terrorist groups, including Fatah al-Sham Front, also known as al-Nusra Front and ISIL.

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