US increases bounty on IS chief Al-Baghdadi to $25 million

December 18, 2016 22:14

The United States has more than doubled the reward for information leading to the capture of dreaded Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to $25 million.

The Department of State released a statement announcing the $25 million reward for the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State.

The new bounty is the same amount offered for Osama bin Laden in 2011, but no one ever cashed in after the al-Qaeda leader was killed in Pakistan by a team of Navy SEALs in May of that year.

"Protecting the homeland and the American people is our top counter-terrorism priority, and just as we have intensified our efforts against IS, we are increasing the means available to us to gain information on their leadership and bring them to justice," the State Department said in a statement.

"The threat that al-Baghdadi poses has increased significantly since the Department of State's initial $10 million reward offer for information leading to his location, arrest, or conviction was announced in 2011," the department's Rewards for Justice Programme said on its website.

"Under Baghdadi, IS has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Middle East, including the brutal murder of numerous civilian hostages from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States," it said.

"Al-Baghdadi has taken credit for numerous terrorist attacks in Iraq since 2011, killing thousands of his fellow Iraqi citizens," it added.

Baghdadi is designated by the Department of State as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist'. He is also listed at the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee.

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