Tigrai Online, June 07, 2012
The United States is to offer millions of dollars in rewards for information leading to the capture of leaders of the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
It is the first time the US has offered money for specific members of the group, which announced its allegiance to al-Qaeda earlier this year.
It has put a price of $7m (£4.5m) on al-Shabab's founder and commander, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamud Godane.
It comes as African Union forces make key advances against the group.
Al-Shabab still controls much of the country but is under pressure from Ethiopian troops, pro-government militias and the African Union force, which has US and European funding.
African Union and Somali government forces last week captured the town of Afmadow, a strategic militant base in the south of the country
Allegiance
The group released a joint video with al-Qaeda in February, announcing that the two groups had merged.
Appearing on the video, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamud Godane, who is also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, said he "pledged obedience" to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has a $25m bounty on his head.
The US added al-Shabab to its list of foreign terrorist organisations in 2008.
Source: BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18353329 Read more at bbc