State Department increases reward for information about ISIS leader

The State Department on Wednesday announced it is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of ISIS's new leader Amir Muhammad Sa'id Abdal-Rahma al-Mawla. 

Previously, the department was offering up to $5 million as a part of a program it announced in 2019 called "Rewards for Justice." 

Al-Mawla was born in Mosul, Iraq, in 1976 and was previously a religious scholar in al Qaeda, ISIS's predecessor terror organization.

He has driven the ISIS efforts to abduct, kill and traffic members of the Yazidi religious minority group in northwest Iraq, in addition to overseeing a number of the group's other logistical operations around the world, according to federal officials.

Al-Mawla, who is also sometimes known as Hajj Abdallah and Abu-'Umar al-Turkmani, became the leader of ISIS in late 2019, following the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a U.S. military operation. 

Earlier this year, Al-Mawla earned a Specially Designated Global Terrorist title from the State Departjment, meaning that U.S. citizens are legally prohibited from engaging in various sorts of transactions with Al-Mawla.