U.S. Issues 'Most-Wanted' List Of Taliban, Al-Qaida Leaders

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) _ A new U.S. ``most-wanted'' campaign is offering up to $200,000 for information on a dozen elusive Taliban and al-Qaida leaders fueling a rise in bombings and suicide

Monday, October 1st 2007, 3:25 pm

By: News On 6

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) _ A new U.S. ``most-wanted'' campaign is offering up to $200,000 for information on a dozen elusive Taliban and al-Qaida leaders fueling a rise in bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

In the south, meanwhile, militants hanged a teenager for having American money in his pocket and stuffed five $1 bills into his mouth as a warning not to use U.S. currency.

To help track down 12 insurgent commanders, posters and billboards are to go up around eastern Afghanistan with their names and pictures. Rewards ranging from $20,000 to $200,000 are available for information leading to their capture.

``We're trying to get more visibility on these guys like the FBI did with the mob,'' said Lt. Col. Rob Pollock, an officer at the main U.S. base in Bagram. ``They operate the same way the mob did, they stay in hiding.''

The list does not include internationally known names who already have a large price on their heads, such as al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden _ who has evaded U.S. capture since 2001 despite a $25 million bounty _ or Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who is worth a $10 million reward.

Instead, it is filled with local insurgent cell leaders responsible for roadside and suicide bomb attacks.

``We want the people in that area to know who this guy is and know he's a bad guy, and when they spot him to turn that guy in,'' military spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher said Sunday.

The campaign is reminiscent of efforts in Iraq to capture high-value insurgents. The U.S. military in April 2003 passed out decks of cards with 55 insurgent names and pictures, and in July 2006 the Iraqi government publicized its own most-wanted list of 41 that included Saddam Hussein's wife and eldest daughter.

The Afghanistan program, which went active in recent days, comes despite peace overtures from President Hamid Karzai, who said on Saturday he would be willing to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar if it would help bring peace.

Militants hanged the 15-year-old boy from a tree Sunday in a village in Helmand, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region.

``The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars,'' said Wali Mohammad, the police chief in the district of Sangin.

Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan alongside the afghani, the local currency, though American money is much more common in larger cities, where international organizations are found, than in the countryside.

Militants often justify their attacks and executions as a response to U.S. meddling in Afghan affairs.

Taliban insurgents in Ghazni province, meanwhile, ambushed a police convoy on Sunday, killing eight officers, said Abdul Khaliq Nikmal, spokesman for the provincial governor.

He said Afghan authorities have sent police reinforcements to the area and are meeting with U.S. military officials to plan a counterattack.

Violence has risen in Afghanistan in recent months. More than 4,600 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on official figures.

The most-wanted program will see 200 billboards and 300,000 posters printed, to be put up by Afghan soldiers and police in areas where the military suspects the insurgents are operating. Some on the list are also believed to spend time in neighboring Pakistan.

The U.S. says it has killed around 50 mostly midlevel insurgent leaders in the past year.

The highest-ranking leader killed this year was Mullah Dadullah, a one-legged militant who orchestrated a rash of Taliban suicide attacks and beheadings. He died of gunshot wounds in a U.S.-led coalition operation in Helmand in May.

``Those mid- and high-level leaders are coordinating the action across Afghanistan. By taking them out there's at least a temporary disruption'' in militant operations, Belcher said.

Among the 12 wanted men, the U.S. is offering the top $200,000 reward for five, including:

_ Abu Laith al-Libi, an al-Qaida training camp leader who has appeared in many Internet videos and who the U.S. says was likely behind the February bombing at the U.S. base at Bagram during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

_ Saraj Haqqani, son of veteran warlord Jalalludin Haqqani and believed to have connections with al-Qaida.

_ Tahir Yuldash, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al-Qaida operational commander.

Pollock said the U.S. is offering up to $10,000 to Afghans who turn in any foreign fighter, such as militants from Arab countries or Chechnya, Turkey or Uzbekistan. The U.S. has also been paying money to Afghans who tell authorities about roadside bombs that have been planted.

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A U.S. ``most-wanted'' list of a dozen elusive Taliban and al-Qaida leaders fueling a surge in bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan, and the rewards offered:

$200,000 REWARD: