$200,000 rewards offered in new campaign against Taliban, al-Qaida

The U.S. military has launched a new “Most Wanted” campaign offering rewards of up to $200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.\nPosters and billboards are being put up around eastern Afghanistan with the names and pictures of the 12, with reward amounts ranging from $20,000 to $200,000.\n“We’re trying to get more visibility on these guys like the FBI did with the mob,” said Lt. Col. Rob Pollock, a U.S. officer at the main American base in Bagram. “They operate the same way the mob did, they stay in hiding.”\nThe list does not include internationally known names who already have large price tags on their heads like al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden – who has evaded U.S. capture since 2001 despite a $25 million bounty – or Taliban leader Mullah Omar with a $10 million reward.\nInstead the list is filled with local insurgent cell leaders responsible for roadside and suicide bomb attacks.\n“We want the people in that area to know who this guy is and know he’s a bad guy, and when they spot him to turn that guy in,” said Maj. Chris Belcher, a U.S. spokesman.\nThe program, in the works for weeks, comes despite peace overtures from President Hamid Karzai, who on Sunday said he would be willing to meet with Omar if it would help bring peace.\nThe posters and billboards will be put up by Afghan soldiers and police in areas where the military suspects the men are operating, Belcher said. Some on the list are also suspected to operate in Pakistan’s tribal regions, where the U.S. military does not have the authority to operate.\nThe U.S. says it has killed around 50 mostly mid-level insurgent leaders over the past year, a strategy the military is continuing to push with the Most Wanted rewards program.\nThe highest-ranking leader killed this year was Mullah Dadullah Lang, a one-legged militant who orchestrated a rash of Taliban suicide attacks and beheadings. He died of gunshot wounds in a U.S.-led coalition operation in Helmand in May.\n“You disrupt the network when you take out the leadership. It has an effect,” Belcher said. “Those mid and high-level leaders are coordinating the action across Afghanistan. By taking them out there’s at least a temporary disruption in the ability of the subordinates to continue coordinated operations.”