Three Al-Shabab leaders are on the US radar.
The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program has offered up to $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of al-Shabab top leaders and the disruption of the financial networks.
Targets for arrest are Ahmed Diriye, Mahad Karate, and Jehad Mostafa.
Al-Shabaab is al-Qa’ida’s partner in East Africa and is blamed for attacks in Kenyan and Somalia that have claimed hundreds of lives. A 2015 al-Shabab attack on Garissa University killed 148 victims, mostly students.
The U.S. State Department released the following charges against the subjects. (Continues after the Ad.
Ahmed Diriye
Al-Shabaab’s emir since September 2014, was designated by the Department as an SDGT on April 21, 2015, and by the UNSC’s Somalia Sanctions Committee on September 24, 2014. He was seen in a video meeting with al-Shabaab fighters prior to the January 2020 attack on Camp Simba in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed one U.S. Army soldier and two U.S. contract personnel, and wounded three additional U.S. personnel and one Kenyan soldier.
Mahad Karate
Designated by the Department as an SDGT on April 21, 2015, and by the UNSC’s Somalia Sanctions Committee on February 26, 2021. Karate is al-Shabaab’s second or shadow deputy emir and continues to lead some al-Shabaab operations. Karate maintains some command responsibility over Amniyat, al-Shabaab’s intelligence and security wing, which oversees suicide attacks and assassinations in Somalia, Kenya, and other countries in the region, and provides logistics and support for al-Shabaab’s terrorist activities.
Jehad Mostafa
Jehad Mostafa is a U.S. citizen and former resident of California. Mostafa has served as a military instructor at al-Shabaab training camps, a leader of foreign fighters, a leader in al-Shabaab’s media wing, an intermediary between al-Shabaab and other terrorist organizations, and a leader in al-Shabaab’s use of explosives in terrorist attacks. In December 2019, he was indicted in federal court on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabaab, and providing material support to al-Shabaab. The FBI assesses Mostafa to be the highest-ranking terrorist with U.S. citizenship fighting overseas.
Click here to read the full press release from the US State Department.