The terrorists that the US is willing to pay millions for

The assassination of the head of Hezbollah’s operations wing and commander of the Radwan force, Ibrahim Akil, along with a number of senior members of the Shiite terrorist organization, once again made headlines for the US wanted list. The U.S. offered 7 million dollars for Akil’s headR, when for information that would lead to the capture of Fuad Shukar who was eliminated in July, the Americans offered 5 million dollars “only”.

The two are a small, even negligible, part of the US Secretary of State’s Rewards for Justice program, which offers to bring information that will lead to the capture of a terroristSea all over the world. The goal of the Secretary of State is to close accounts with terrorists who harmed American interests. Akil, for example, was wanted for involvement in the attack At the US embassy in Beirut in April 1983, where 63 people were murdered, and in the attacks against the multinational force six months later, in which 241 American soldiers were killed.

Among the wanted persons for whom the USA offers the highest amount in the Middle East and North Africa, a reward of 15 million dollars is offered for two: the businessman linked to the Revolutionary Guards, Hussein Hatfi Ardakhni, and the senior member of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Abdel Reza Shahlai.

For the past decade, Ardakhni has been using a network of companies located in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, with the aim of helping the Ayatollah regime obtain components, raw materials and advanced technologies from the US and other countries. Those components are finally used to manufacture the Iranian Shahad 136 and Shahad 131 drones, which are used in the Iron Swords War. Iran and its proxies to attack Israel. The same drones are also used by Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Shahlai, according to the State Secretariat, operates from the Yemeni capital Sana’a, where he is stationed as the deputy commander of the Quds Force – the unit of the Revolutionary Guards whose role is to “export” the Islamic revolution. As part of his activities, Shahlai took part in the establishment of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, and in 2011 he was a central factor in planning the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington at the time, Adel al-Jubeir. About four years ago, the Trump administration tried to eliminate Shahlai in a drone attack in Yemen. Even today, according to estimates, he is deeply involved in the international terrorist activities of the Quds Force.

Businessmen are also on the list

The sums offered in Washington for Ardakhni and Shahlai are higher than those offered for senior Hezbollah officials, but Akil was not the most wanted “expensive” among the members of the terrorist organization. The Americans are offering an impressive reward of 10 million dollars for a list of people linked to Hezbollah.

A prominent figure among these is Salim Ayash, who was accused four years ago in absentia of the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. A similar amount is offered for Ali Kasir, who is a prominent factor in the financial relationship between the Quds Force and Hezbollah. Kasir is the director of the “Talaki Group” which is linked to Hezbollah, and which finances oil shipments by the Quds Force. The State Secretariat notes that he took care of the supply of tankers for the illegal oil activity, and that the Talaki group even worked for the benefit of the steel trade amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

Mohammed Ibrahim Bazi, for whom the US is offering 10 million dollars, is a wanted man who reflects the American focus on severing Hezbollah’s financial ties. Bazi, owner of companies that deal in international trade, investments and vehicles, is a significant financier of the terrorist organization through businesses in Belgium, Lebanon , Iraq, and other countries from West Africa.

A person for whom the US is offering $7 million, and who is significant from the Israeli angle, is the commander of Unit 910, Talal Hamia. The senior officer, who manages Hezbollah’s activities outside of Lebanon and is entrusted with planning attacks around the world, was chosen, according to a report on the “Al-Arabiya” network, to fill The areas of responsibility of Akil al-Hamusel alongside the commander of the southern front, Ali Karchi.

“Many Lebanese live in South America who help Hezbollah and have established straw companies. When the Americans mark certain companies, it sends a discouraging message to others,” explains Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism Policy at Reichman University. “The financing channels of terrorist organizations are the oxygen pipe, the main artery. Without it, it is impossible to purchase military equipment, there are no salaries, and without salaries – the activists leave. An important part of the fight against terrorism is the drying up of funding sources, so the US offers a lot of money for them. In the case of ISIS, the US managed to damage the financing system and it still has an effect.”

A minority are wanted by Hamas

There are not many wanted from the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas as part of Rewards for Justice. However, a prominent figure is the freed Shalit deal – Ahlam Tamimion which the Americans offer 5 million dollars. Tamimi drove the suicide bomber who carried out the attack on the Sabaro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, in which 15 people were murdered and 140 injured. A decade later she was released, and since then Tamimi has stood out for her activities on a TV program she received on the Al-Quds network, in which she encouraged terrorist activity. The same activity encouraged the Trump administration about four years ago to examine economic sanctions against Jordan, according to a report in AP.

The main reason Tamimi is wanted in the US is that one of the murdered was the late Malki Roth, an Israeli-American girl. In 2022, the Biden administration expressed their expectations from Jordan that King Abdullah would hand Tamimi over to them. However, similar to other Middle Eastern issues of the current administration, they did not take significant actions that would speed up the process.