According to a report by IFP, the US Department of State released a statement announcing the $25 million dollar reward for the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — more than doubling the reward announced previously.
“The threat that al-Baghdadi poses has increased significantly since the Department of State’s initial $10 million reward offer for information leading to his location, arrest, or conviction was announced in 2011,” the department’s Rewards for Justice Program said on its website.
Under al-Baghdadi, ISIS grabbed swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria — earning a reputation for unparalleled brutality, CNN reported.
Later on Friday, Al Alam quoted Iraqi Major General Fadhil Jalil Barwari as saying that al-Baghdadi is currently hiding underground near the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.
He added that al-Baghdadi was detained ten years ago, and Iraqi forces “have enough information about him to track him.”
“We believe he is now in Biaj, west of Mosul, hiding in an underground bunker. He changes his location all the time, and he also changes his appearance,” the commander of Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service told Niqash portal.
In November, the Iraqi armed forces press service said that al-Baghdadi fled Mosul amid the Iraqi troops’ military operation to retake the northern city.
