Relations of a US aid worker and American soldiers - all killed or injured by Daesh and Al Nusra Front (renamed Hayat Tahrir al Sham) - have lodged a legal claim against cement maker Lafarge over payments the French company made to terror groups.

Lafarge, which was taken over by Swiss-listed Holcim (HOLN.S) in 2015, agreed to pay $778 million in forfeiture and fines as part of a pleaagreement last October.

The French company paid nearly $6mn to Daesh and Al Nusra Front in Syria, the court document lodged last week with the district court for the Eastern District of New York said.

"Defendants' payments aided the terrorist attacks that targeted plaintiffs and their family members," the document said.

As well as Lafarge SA, the defendants include its former Chairman Bruno Lafont and other executives in the claim which is seeking punitive damages and compensation.

"In accepting Lafarge's guilty plea last year, the court found its crime impacted the victims of terrorist acts," the complaint document said.

"Just as Lafarge is guilty of a crime under the Anti-Terrorism Act, it is civilly liable under the same statute to the victims of its criminal conspiracy," it added.

Lafarge said on Friday it had not been served with the lawsuit and would therefore not comment on it.

The claimants include the families of US journalists and military personnel killed or injured by Al Nusra Front and Daesh attacks in Syria, Iraq, and further afield.

They include the family of Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker who was raped and murdered, as well as the families of journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley who were both beheaded by Daesh on camera in 2014.

The complaint also includes the families of 10 US military personnel killed or injured by Daesh attacks in Syria and Iraq and Niger, and one American injured during an attack in Türkiye.

"Lafarge's support for ISIS and ANF ran deep. It operated a lucrative cement plant in northern Syria, and it decided that bribing Syrian terrorists offered the best way to protect its profits from the plant," the court document said.

TRT World's Documentary

In 2021, an investigation by TRT World exposed Lafarge's illegal activities in Syria and how the factory was a cover for the French secret services.

The documentary, titled The Factory: A Covert French Operation, exposes France's operation to support the Daesh terror organisation via French cement giant Lafarge.

It results from a 2-year investigation and analysis of more than half a million documents, revealing one of the darkest episodes of the Syrian Civil War.

It details why Lafarge decided to stay in Syria and keep its factory operative throughout the war, how EU funds were diverted to Daesh and the PKK terror groups, with the knowledge and cover-up of the French intelligence agencies.

The investigation also focuses on the steps French politicians and intelligence agencies took to save Lafarge from legal proceedings and how the process of funding Daesh in Syria ended up financing the 2015 Paris attacks.