$10 million bounty on al Qaeda

As thousands of American service members prepare to depart Iraq as part of an agreement to leave by the end of this year, the U.S.

State Department has issued a $10 million bounty for a man there it recently designated international terrorist leader. Ibrahim "Awwad Ibrahim" Ali al-Badri, also known by the alias "Abu Du'a," was put on the agency's global terrorist list earlier this week and is the senior leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, the State Department said.

According to a State Department bulletin, Abu Du'a is in charge of overseeing all AQI operations, such as the August attack on Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque, and is based in Iraq.

He has also threatened "violent retaliation" for the death of Osama bin Laden, who was killed in May after a decade-long manhunt ended with a U.S. raid on the former al Qaeda leader's compound in Pakistan.

Three days after bin Laden's death, Abu Du'a claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 24 policemen and wounded 72 others, according to the bulletin.

His group has also claimed responsibility for series of August attacks that began in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and left more than 70 people dead.

The terrorist designation is part of a U.S. effort to restrict resources available to Abu Du'a, while also freezing his assets in the United States, the State Department said.

The United States designated al Qaeda in Iraq as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2004.



cnn.com