The US today Monday June 3rd posted up to $23 million in
rewards to help track down five leaders of militant groups accused of spreading
terror in west Africa.
The highest reward of $7 million is offered for the Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who last week called on Islamists in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Iraq to join the bloody fight to create an Islamic state in
Nigeria.
The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program
also targeted Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), offering its first ever
bounties for wanted militants in west Africa.
Up to $5 million was posted for Al-Qaeda veteran Mokhtar
Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist behind the devastating attack on an Algerian
gas plant in January in which 37 foreigners, including three Americans, were
killed.
A further $5 million was offered for top AQIM leader
Yahya Abou Al-Hammam, reportedly involved in the 2010 murder of an elderly
French hostage in Niger.
Malik Abou
Abdelkarim, a senior fighter with AQIM, and Oumar Ould Hamaha, the spokesman
for Mali’s Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), were also
targeted by the rewards program, which will give up to $3 million each for
information leading to their arrests.
Source: AFP
0 comments:
Post a Comment