Somalia puts bounty on al-Shabab leaders
Somalia’s government has placed a bounty on the top 11 leaders of the militant Islamist al-Shabab group.
Top of the list is its chief Ahmed Diriye with $250,000 (£169,000) offered for information leading to his capture.
A list of their names, nicknames and origins was issued after a cabinet meeting – and a week after al-Shabab’s attack on a Kenyan university.
Official figures put the number of dead in the raid on Garissa University College at 148 – most of them students.
The al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have promised a “long, gruesome war” against Kenya, which has troops in the African Union force in neighbouring Somalia.
The AU and Somali government troops have recaptured major cities from the militants in Somalia in recent years, but al-Shabab still holds territory in rural areas of the south.
Rewards:
- Ahmed Diriye: $250,000 – leader
- Mahad Warsame Qaley: $150,000 – intelligence chief
- Ali Mohamed Raage: $100,000 – spokesman
- Other commanders with $100,000 bounties: Abdullahi Abdi Jumaale, Mohamed Mohamoud Nor, Ali Mahamed Huseen, Hasan Mahaed Ali, Abdullahi Ismaan, Mahamed Abdi Musa, Mahamed Mahamuud and Yasin Ismman
