State Department announces $3M reward for info on senior ISIS leader
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The State Department Thursday announced a $3 million reward for any information on Muhammad Khadir Musa Ramadan, a senior leader in the Islamic State (ISIS).
Ramadan, also known as Abu Bakr al-Gharib, is one of the group's leading propagandists.
“Muhammad Khadir Musa Ramadan is one of ISIS's longest-serving senior media officials," a State Department spokesperson told Fox News. "Ramadan oversees the group’s daily media operations, including the management of content from ISIS’s dispersed global network of supporters."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Intelligence officials said he has also played a key role in the gruesome videos for which ISIS has become notorious.
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"He has overseen the planning, coordination and production of numerous propaganda videos, publications and online platforms that included brutal and cruel scenes of torture and mass execution of innocent civilians," the spokesperson told Fox News. "His interpretation of Islam is so extreme that he led an effort to purge ISIS of moderate opinions, imprisoning members of ISIS's propaganda teams who he felt did not match his level of fanaticism."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ISIS extremists have enslaved non-Muslims, carried out mass killings, and beheaded and tortured people on camera as recruiting tactics.
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U.S. Special Forces killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019, but ISIS remains a threat in Syria and Iraq.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Security officials further believe that ISIS has been using the coronavirus as an excuse to up their attacks.
ISIS propaganda magazine Al-Naba, has reportedly told their fighters that Western nations will be deterred by the virus.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the International Crisis Group, the magazine’s March edition said, “Fear of this contagion has affected them more than the contagion itself.”
The group has expanded across the Middle East and throughout parts of northern Africa.
The State Department is relying on the Rewards for Justice program to help them obtain information about Ramadan and his whereabouts.
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The program has reportedly assisted in preventing terrorist acts or finding those involved in terrorism, since 1984, and has paid over 100 people more than $150 million.
"We are determined to identify and find the group’s leaders so that the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and our partners on the ground in Iraq and Syria can continue to target ISIS remnants and thwart its global ambitions," the spokesperson told Fox News.