US more than doubles bounty for 'Islamic State' leader
Officials have hiked up a reward for details on "Islamic State" leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Reports suggest the elusive terror figurehead is most likely still in Iraq. The US State Department's Rewards for Justice program will award the $25 million (23.9 million euros) for information that will help locate, arrest or convict the head of the "Islamic State" (IS) jihadi group. "Under al-Baghdadi, IS has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Middle East, including the brutal murder of numerous civilian hostages," the department said in a statement on Friday, adding that the threat he poses has "increased significantly." The increase more than doubles the previous $10 million reward for the IS leader, which was first introduced in 2011. Details of the new bounty were immediately tweeted by Brett McGurk, S pecial US Presidential Envoy for Global Coalition to Counter IS. View image on Twitter