The US Department of State has offered a reward of up to $5 million each for information leading to the identification of senior Hurras al-Din leaders Abu Abd al-Karim al-Masri, Faruq al-Suri and Sami al-Uraydi.
All three leaders have been active in al-Qaeda (AQ) for years and remain loyal to AQ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, said the State Department on Thursday in an announcement by its Rewards for Justice Program.
Al-Masri, also known as Karim, is an Egyptian national. In 2018, he was a member of Hurras al-Din’s shura and served as a mediator between the group and al-Nusra Front, it said in a statement.
Al-Suri, also known as Samir Hijazi and Abu Hammam al-Shami, is a Syrian national, said the statement. He fought in Afghanistan in the 1990s and trained AQ fighters in Iraq, among other activities.
As for al-Uraydi, aka Abu Mahmud al-Shami, is a Jordanian national and senior sharia official for Hurras al-Din, said the State Department.
He has been previously involved in terrorist plots against the United States and Israel, it added.
Thursday’s announcement of the reward comes two days after the US announced sanctions on a “wide range of terrorists and their supporters,” including the Palestinian group Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, al-Qaeda and ISIS.
