WASHINGTON: The United States is offering new rewards for information on four key leaders of the Haqqani Network and has also increased a previously announced reward offer for information about the group’s current leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice programme announced on Thursday that the government had authorised rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the location of Aziz Haqqani, Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani, Yahya Haqqani and Abdul Rauf Zakir.

The department also has increased its previous reward offer of up to $5 million for information on the group’s leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, to up to $10 million.

Siraj’s father, Jalaluddin, formed the network in the late 1970s to fight the Soviets but allied with Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The department said in a statement released on Wednesday that the group still operated from North Waziristan, conducting cross-border attacks in eastern Afghanistan and Kabul.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014