US Offers Millions Of Dollars As Reward For Leaders Of AQAP - State Department

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published October 18, 2018 | 09:21 PM

The United States will pay up to $5 million for information about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (outlawed in Russia) leader Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi, and is increasing its reward for the arrest or conviction of AQAP leader Qasim al-Rimi to $10 million, the US Department of State said in a press release on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The United States will pay up to $5 million for information about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (outlawed in Russia) leader Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi, and is increasing its reward for the arrest or conviction of AQAP leader Qasim al-Rimi to $10 million, the US Department of State said in a press release on Thursday.

"The US Department of State's Rewards for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) senior regional leader Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi, and is increasing from $5 million to up to $10 million its reward for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and or conviction of the leader of AQAP Qasim al-Rimi," the release said.

The State Department noted that Yemen-native al-Rimi was named the emir of AQAP in June 2015, and escaped from a Yemen prison in 2006 after being convicted for a plot to assassinate the US Ambassador there.

The State Department has designated al-Rimi a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and he is also on a list of individuals sanctioned by the United Nations, the release noted.

The State Department also said Saudi-native al-Batarfi trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and fought with the Taliban in that country starting in 2001.

Al-Batfari joined AQAP in 2010 and was named emir of Abyan. In January 2018, the US designated him an Specially Designated Global Terrorist after he threatened the Jews and the United States over the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to the release.