NEW YORK, July 25: US federal authorities on Tuesday raided offices of two Muslim charities in Dearborn, Michigan, who were suspected of having ties with terrorist groups in the Middle East, according to news reports.

A Dearborn police officer guarded the entrance to the office of the Goodwill Charitable Organisation, a fund-raising office established by the Martyrs Foundation in Dearborn.

The US Treasury Department said in a news release that it “targeted Hezbollah's support network by designating the Iran-based Martyrs Foundation, including its US branch, and the finance firm Al-Qard al-Hassan.”

The government has also frozen the assets of the Goodwill Charitable Organisation, said the news release. “We will continue to target those who form the financial backbone of

Hezbollah, Hamas, PIJ and other terrorist groups that are attempting to destabilise Lebanon and target innocent civilians,” said Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in the news release.

“We will not allow organisations that support terrorism to raise money in the United States or to evade our measures and continue to operate simply by changing their names.”