Somalia places bounty up to 250,000 USD on heads of Al-Shabaab leaders

The Somali government has placed a bounty of between 100,000 U.S. dollars and 250,000 dollars on the head of 11 most wanted terror suspects in the Horn of Africa nation.

Government spokesman Ridway Haji said Somalia will give 250,000 dollars to anyone with information that will lead to the capture or killing of Al-Shabaab leader Mohamed Diriye and another 150,000 dollars for senior Al-Shabaab commander Mahad Karate.

Haji said the government has also declared a sum of 100,000 dollars for the capture or killing of nine other leaders of the Al- Qaida linked group Al-Shabaab including the mastermind of the Kenya university siege which killed 148 people barely a week ago.

"This approach will enable us to get information from the public and we promise to keep and protect the confidentiality of those who volunteer any information to the government," Haji said.

Haji said the cabinet had discussed and approved the rewards over 11 senior Al-Shabaab members including the group's spokesman Mahamud Rage. The government also published the sub-clans of the Al-Shabaab leaders.

The announcement came in the wake of a similar bounty by the Kenyan government which placed 217,000 dollars for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the Garissa university attack mastermind Mohamed Mohamud alias Dulyadin.

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced this week that his government had adopted a new anti-terrorism strategy to combat the militant group, though he did not provide any details regarding the nature of the strategy. Endi