US offers multi-million dollar rewards for Islamic State leaders

WASHINGTON - The US State Department announced rewards of up to $20 million for information about four members of the Islamic State (IS) group Tuesday.

Secretary of State John Kerry authorised up to $7 million for information about Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, up to $5 million each for information on Abu Mohammed al-Adnani and Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, and up to $3 million for information on Tariq Bin-al-Tahar Bin al Falih al-‘Awni al-Harzi.

Al-Qaduli is a senior IS official who is currently in Syria where he works with the militant group, according to the State Department.

The department added that al-Adnani is the official spokesman for IS and "the main conduit for the dissemination" of the group’s messages, Batirashvili is a senior leader who commands IS operations in Aleppo, al-Raqqah, Latakia, and northern Idlib provinces, and al-Harzi is the group’s leader in the border region between Turkey and Syria.  

All of the men were designated as global terrorists from May 2014 through September 2014.

Meanwhile, the White House said on Tuesday that it was too soon to tell if the Islamic State group was behind an attack in Texas targeting an exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, despite claims by IS.

The group earlier claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, in which two gunmen shot a security guard in a Dallas suburb before being killed by a police officer outside an event showcasing the cartoons, which many Muslims find offensive.

The case "is still under investigation by the FBI and other members of the intelligence community" to determine if the two assailants had any ties to the IS group, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

"So it's too early to say at this point."