Somalia: Washington offers $33m for al-Shabab leaders

Washington has offered up to $33m (£21m) in rewards for information about top members of the extremist group al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qa'ida.

The bounties for seven members of the Somalia-based Islamist network will be administered by the State Department's Rewards for Justice programme. It will pay up to $7m for al-Shabab's founder, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed; up to $5m each for his associates, Ibrahim Haji Jama, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud and Mukhtar Robow; and up to $3m for two other members.

It will be first time the US has offered rewards for members of al-Shabab, which is accused of terrorist attacks in Somalia, Uganda and Kenya. Al-Shabab and al-Qa'ida formally joined forces this year, although the ties between the groups were already strong.