US PLACES $23M REWARD FOR BOKO HARAM LEADER, SHEKAU AND FOUR OTHERS

The US yesterday 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
bountiesfor 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 threeAmericans,
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