The Rewards for Justice program under the State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maalim Ayman or anyone tied to the Jan. 5, 2020 terrorist attack on U.S. and Kenyan personnel at the Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya.
Maalim Ayman, leader of an al-Shabab unit, an al-Qaida affiliate, was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under then-President Donald Trump in 2020.
Ayman is accused of preparing the terror attack in Kenya that killed a U.S. soldier and two U.S. Department of Defense contractors and wounded two other U.S. service members and a third DOD contractor. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in a video afterward.
"Based in East Africa, al-Shabab is one of al-Qaida's most dangerous affiliates and is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Kenya, Somalia, and neighboring countries that have killed thousands of people, including U.S. citizens," the State Department wrote in a release announcing the reward. "The terrorist group continues to plot, plan, and conspire to commit terrorist acts against the United States, U.S. interests, and foreign partners."
Al-Shabab was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in March 2008.
The RFJ program, administered under the Diplomatic Security Service, has paid out over $250 million to more than 125 people around the world who have provided "actionable information" to project U.S. national security, according to the State Department.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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