The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Syria’s central bank chief and 16 other people or institutions.

The United States ordered the freezing of any US assets of the central bank governor, Hazem Karfoul, and the other Syrians, with any financial transactions with them now punishable in US.

The US Treasury Department, which is widely targetting anyone affiliated with President Bashar al-Assad, did not allege specific crimes by Karfoul but pointed to reports he tried to shake down businesses to contribute to state coffers.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that sanctions against Syrian figures “will not cease until the Assad regime and its enablers take irreversible steps to end their campaign of violence against the Syrian people.”

Among others designated by the Treasury Department are businessman Khodr Taher bin Ali and Husam Muhammad Louka, head of the General Intelligence Directorate, one of the country’s spy agencies.

Taher was accused of being a key supplier for the army’s Fourth Division including through the creation of a private security firm that has become the unit’s “informal executive arm.”

The Treasury Department said Taher also set up a telecommunications provider, Emma Tel LLC, in an apparent bid to counter Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon who has fallen out with his cousin Assad.

The State Department separately said it was designating three people or units over deadly air strikes three years ago in the town of Armanaz, in Idlib province near the Turkish border.

At least 34 Syrians died in the attack, according to the State Department’s toll, as Russia backed Syria in operations against jihadists.