EU freezes assets over oil to Syria

Brussels - The European Union on Wednesday froze the assets of two oil- trading firms accused of organising covert shipments of oil to Syria.

They were among nine organisations, as well as branches of the Syrian defence ministry and three people added to the EU's Syria sanctions list, published in the bloc's Official Journal.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been blacklisted by Western powers for its role in the country's three-year civil war in which at least 150 000 people have been killed, according to one monitoring group.

The two oil-trading firms were Beirut-based Oceans Petroleum Trading, also called Overseas Petroleum Trading or Overseas Petroleum and Tri Oceans Trading, an Egyptian firm. Their assets in the 28-nation EU will be frozen.