US slaps ban on Bulgarian firms for arms sales to terror sponsor

The penalties were imposed against the Beta JSC and KAS Engineering Consortium/BMG-M OOD companies for the transfers which involved unspecified "military equipment," the State Department said.

"The United States government has determined that the (firms) transferred certain military equipment to a state sponsor of terrorism," it said in a notice published in the Federal Register.

The purchasing country was not identified, but since Iraq was removed from the "state sponsors terrorism" blacklist earlier this week there are only six nations so designated: Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.