US doubles bounty on Daesh leader to $10 million

The United States on Wednesday doubled the bounty to $10 million for new Daesh leader Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawla also known as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, reported CNBC.

“This reward is an important moment in our fight against Daesh and its branches and networks around the world. As Daesh is defeated on the battlefield, we are determined to identify and find the group’s leaders so that the global coalition of nations fighting to defeat Daesh can continue to destroy Daesh remnants and thwart its global ambitions,” said the US State Department in its statement.

Washington had previously put a bounty of $5 million for al-Mawla before he was identified as the successor to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a raid by US special forces in northwestern Syria in October last year.

“As one of ISIS’s most senior ideologues, al-Mawla helped drive and justify the abduction, slaughter, and trafficking of the Yazidi religious minority in northwest Iraq and also led some of the group’s global terrorist operations,” the State Department added.

Trump had previously had placed the Daesh's new chief in the crosshairs after he was widely criticised after announcing a full withdrawal of US troops from Syria in September last year. Trump’s opponents and some allies had said the withdrawal of troops would Daesh to rebuild as well as leaving US-allied Kurdish fighters vulnerable to a Turkish invasion.

However, the US president had claimed that the Daesh leadership was running scared in the wake of Baghdadi's death.

"Thanks to American warriors, al-Baghdadi is dead, his second in charge is dead [spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir], we have our eyes on number three.”

"His reign of terror is over, and we have our enemies running very, very scared. Those who threaten our people don't stand a chance against the righteous might of the American military," he added.