Somalia places up to $250,000 bounty on Al-Shabaab leaders

Mogadishu, April 10: The Somali government has placed a bounty of $100,000 to $250,000 on 11 most wanted leaders of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.

Government spokesman Ridway Haji said Somalia would give $250,000 to anyone with information leading to the capture or killing of Al-Shabaab leader Mohamed Diriye, and another $150,000 for senior Al-Shabaab commander Mahad Karate, Xinhua reported on Friday.

According to Haji, the government also announced a sum of $100,000 for the capture or killing of nine other leaders of the Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab, including the mastermind of the Garissa University attack in Kenya, which killed 148 people barely a week ago.

Haji said that the cabinet had discussed and approved the bounty on 11 senior Al-Shabaab members, including the group's spokesman Mahamud Rage.

The announcement came in the wake of a similar bounty by the Kenyan government which offered $217,000 to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the Garissa University attack mastermind Mohamed Mohamud alias Dulyadin.

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced this week that his government had adopted a new anti-terrorism strategy to combat the militant group, though he did not provide any details about the nature of the strategy.

IANS