The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $10 million dollars for information leading to the capture and prosecution of Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the al-Qaeda Syria branch. The $10 million reward makes al-Julani one of the top five most wanted jihadist leaders in the world.
The State Department in today’s announcement noted that al-Julani is the head of al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, despite the fact that over the past year it changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and then merged with other groups to form Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
The $10 million reward puts al-Julani in a group of top terrorist leaders wanted by the US government. He is not the only one with a price on his head though. The US is offering $25 million for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the emir of the Islamic State, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaeda. The US is also offering $10 million for Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of the Taliban’s two deputy emirs, and Yasin al-Suri, who has been reported to be the head of al-Qaeda’s network in Iran.
Muhammad al-Jawlani goes by several names including Muhammed al-Jawlani, Abu Mohamed al-Jawlani, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Abu Muhammad al-Golani, Abu Muhammad Aljawlani, Abu Ashraf, Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a Ahmad Hussain al-Sharaa, and al-Sheikh al-Fateh. He is the senior leader of the terrorist organization, the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), al-Qaeda in Syria.
In April 2013, al-Jawlani pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. In July 2016, al-Jawlani praised al-Qaeda and al-Zawahiri in an online video and claimed the ANF was changing its name to Jabhat Fath al-Sham.
The constant changing of names is common within the terrorist groups.
Under al-Jawlani’s leadership, the group has carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria, mainly targeting civilians. In April 2015, his group kidnapped, and later released, approximately 300 Kurdish civilians from a checkpoint in Syria. In June 2015, ANF claimed responsibility for the massacre of 20 residents of the Druze village Qalb Lawzeh in Idlib province, Syria.
Al-Nusrah Front(ANF) merged with several other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in January 2017. ANF remains al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. Even though al-Jawlani is not the leader of the parent group, HTS, he is the head of ANF, a central organization within HTS.
ANF is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity under E.O. 13224. The UN Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qa’ida Sanctions Committee has also added ANF to its sanctions list.
Al-Jawlani is designated by the Department of State as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224. He is also listed at the UN Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qa’ida Sanctions Committee.
