The Biden administration on Thursday announced Sanctions on an intelligence branch of Iran's paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other actors involved in the wrongful detention of Americans overseas. The sanctions target the IRGC Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO), which US officials say frequently holds and interrogates detainees at Evin prison, the sprawling detention center in northern Tehran believed to hold thousands of inmates, including foreign nationals used by Iran to extract concessions from the West. The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on IRGC-IO commander Mohammad Kazemi and three of the group's officials it said were linked to the detention of Americans and other foreigners. Kazemi, who took charge of the IRGC-IO in June 2022, was already under sanctions imposed in October for his role in the crackdown on Iran's peaceful protest movement. The designations were the first issued under an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in July 2022 that directs federal agencies to impose financial and travel sanctions on those who are responsible for hostage-taking or wrongful

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