The United States is offering a $10 million reward for information to identify or locate the head of al Qaeda's former Syria affiliate the Fateh al-Sham Front. The State Department's Rewards for Justice reward for information on Abu Mohamed al-Jolani is its first for a leader of the group.
He has been named a "specially designated global terrorist" by the State Department and is also listed at the United Nations Security Council. In its notice, the State Department indicates that Jolani pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in April 2013 after falling out with the Islamic State group. He praised al Qaeda again in an online video posted in July 2016. Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, split from al Qaeda in July 2016 from al Qaeda in a move analysts said was an abortive attempt to end its blacklisting by the United Nations and Western governments.