Coalition offers three-tier rewards for insurgents
 |
Iraqi police and school officials view the school compound in Baghdad where two children were killed by an accidental grenade explosion.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
A version of soldiers' letters home can be found on a Web site.
U.S. soldiers in Iraq treated for skin lesions caused by a parasite transmitted by sand flies.
A look at top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is at the forefront of Iraqi-U.S. politics
|
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday it is increasing the rewards it offers for the capture of the insurgents attacking coalition soldiers, Iraqi security personnel and civilians who work with the coalition.
The reward system puts targets into three categories, with different bounties for each, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.
The coalition will pay:
• $1 million for 10 outstanding members of what the coalition calls the "strategic blacklist," all of whom appear on the Pentagon's list of the 55 Most Wanted Iraqis.
• $200,000 for former 11 regime officials with regional responsibilities.
• $50,000 each for 20 local terror cell operatives.
Kimmitt also announced a $1 million reward for Mohammed Yunis, whom Kimmitt described as a top insurgent. Coalition officials did not provide any more information about Yunis, except for a couple of aliases: Mohammed Yonis al Ahmed Al Moali and Khadr Al-Sabahi.
The more the military understands the insurgency's organizational structure, the more officials hear the same names, Kimmitt said.
"Those are the targets we're going after and that's one of the reasons we're raising the price for rewards," he said.
He said the insurgency does not appear to be controlled from a central point, but is rather more like a "series of cells with loose association between each other," he said.
Last week, the military announced $10 million rewards posted for top fugitives Ibrahim Izzat al-Douri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Douri, who was a member of the former ruling Baathist Party's inner circle, is the highest ranking fugitive on the Iraqi 55 Most Wanted List, at No. 6.
Al-Zarqawi is an insurgent of Jordanian descent who the military said most likely wrote a letter meant for al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan. The letter, obtained with the capture of an al Qaeda courier last month, claims responsibility for several terror attacks on the coalition in Iraq and calls for the fomenting of violence against Shiites to promote civil war.
The coalition paid a $1 million reward to an Iraqi who provided critical information that led to the arrest last month of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, a Baath Party regional chairman for the Karbala governorate, Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said.
Coalition officials said "significant security" is provided to people who have won rewards.
The announcement of the reward program comes after a wave of violence last week targeting Iraqi police and security recruits.
Insurgent attacks in Iskandariyah, Baghdad and Fallujah killed more than 125 people, and the assaults raised questions about whether the Iraqi military will be able to take over security when political power is handed over by the coalition to Iraq at the end of June.
The Fallujah strike Saturday was a well-coordinated attack on the central police station and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps headquarters. Most of the 25 people killed were police, and dozens of prisoners were freed. The other massive strikes targeted Iraqi Army and police recruits.
The bloodshed continued Monday. Three American soldiers were killed and six wounded in roadside attacks across Iraq, U.S. military officials said, and other violence claimed the lives of two children and a missionary.
The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom to 545 -- 377 under hostile circumstances, according to U.S. military figures.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he awaits U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's report on the prospects of direct elections for a transitional legislature before the United States hands over power to Iraq June 30. Annan hopes to provide conclusions on the Brahimi report in several days.
The U.N. electoral team was chosen after criticism of the proposal to have caucuses select members of the assembly. The most influential of those critics is the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said June 30 "is the appropriate time to have a transition to an interim government" in Iraq," but said the United States still has an "open mind" on the handover plan.
The debate, Powell said, is around the caucus system.
"Is the caucus still the best way to do it, or can the caucus process be refined or modified in some way?" he said.
