The U.S. on Wednesday placed a 20 million dollars bounty for information leading to the location, arrest, or conviction of al-Qaeda key leaders Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah and Sayf al-Adl.

The Office of the Spokesperson said the Department’s Rewards for Justice Programme increased reward offers from 10 million dollars to 20 million dollars for the two terrorists for bombing the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The amount represented a doubling of the previous reward offers of five million dollars each announced in December 2000.

Both Abdullah and al-Adl served as members of al-Qaeda’s leadership council, and al-Adl also served on the group’s military committee.

“Both individuals were charged by a federal grand jury in November 1998 for their role in the Aug. 7, 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

“The attacks killed 224 civilians, including 12 Americans, and wounded more than 5,000 others,” the U.S. said.

In 2001, Abdullah and al-Adl were added to the UN Security Council’s al-Qaeda Sanctions List as well as the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals under Executive Order 13224 for their activities in support of al-Qaeda.

“We encourage anyone with information about these individuals to contact the Rewards for Justice office via e-mail (info@rewardsforjustice.net), by phone (1-800-877-3927 in North America), or by mail (Rewards for Justice, Washington, D.C., 20520-0303, USA).

“All information will be kept strictly confidential,” the U S. said.

The Rewards for Justice Programme is administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid in excess of $145 million to more than 90 individuals who provided actionable information that helped bring terrorists to justice or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide. (NAN)

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