US puts up $3 million bounty for Islamic State propagandist

The United States said Thursday it would offer up to $3 million for the arrest of a senior leader of the Islamic State movement who has overseen the extremists' grisly execution videos.

The State Department said it would provide the reward in return for information on the location or further identification of Jordanian-born Muhammad Khadir Musa Ramadan, also known as Abu Bakr al-Gharib.

"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," it said in a statement.

US special forces in October killed the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi inside Syria, where the extremists once ran a self-styled caliphate that stretched into Iraq.

The extremists carried out summary beheadings and enslaved non-Muslims, with videos of their deeds used to recruit fighters from around the world.

A Western-backed military campaign decimated the group's former stronghold but attacks linked to Islamic State extremists have been rising farther afield, including in Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa.

© 2020 AFP