US posts hefty bounty on four key IS figures

Texas shooter was ‘heartthrob’ in Pak
• Nadir Soofi, one of the gunmen who attacked a Texas venue hosting a controversial cartoon contest concerning Prophet Mohammed, was a charismatic “ladies’ man” as a teenager, contemporaries from an elitePakistani school said
• Soofi studied at the $20,000-a-year International School of Islamabad from 1992 to 1998, where contemporaries said he was funny, popular and charming and showed no inclination towards extremism

The US has offered rewards amounting to $20 million for tips on whereabouts of four top leaders of the Islamic State, after the terror group claimed responsibility for its first attack on American soil.
Through its ‘Rewards for Justice’ programme, the State Department announced that it would pay up to $7 million for information on Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, up to $5 million each for Abu Mohammed al-Adnani and Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili and up to #3 million for Tariq Bin-al-Tahar Bin al Falih al-‘Awni al-Harzi.
According to the department, Qaduli is a senior Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) official who originally joined Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Iraq, Adnani is an official ISIL spokesman, Batirashvili is a battlefield commander in northern Syria and Harzi is the group’s leader for the border region between Syria and Turkey.
“Qaduli is a senior Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) official who reintegrated himself into ISIL following his release from prison in early 2012 and travelled to Syria to work in a Syria-based ISIL network. Al-Qaduli joined al-Qaeda in 2004 under the command of now deceased al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and served as his deputy and the AQI amir (leader) of Mosul, Ninawa Province, Iraq,” the State Department said.
On May 14, 2014, the US Department of the Treasury designated Qaduli as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Describing Adnani, for whose information a reward of up to USD 5 million is being offered, the State Department states, “Adnani, born Taha Sobhi Falaha in Syria, is the official spokesman for and a senior leader of ISIL. Al-Adnani is ISIL’s main conduit for the dissemination of official messages, including ISIL’s declaration of the creation of an Islamic Caliphate.”