US Doubles Reward for ISIS Leader

ISIS militants and their families walk as they surrendered in the village of Baghouz, Deir Ezzor province, Syria March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said
ISIS militants and their families walk as they surrendered in the village of Baghouz, Deir Ezzor province, Syria March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said
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US Doubles Reward for ISIS Leader

ISIS militants and their families walk as they surrendered in the village of Baghouz, Deir Ezzor province, Syria March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said
ISIS militants and their families walk as they surrendered in the village of Baghouz, Deir Ezzor province, Syria March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said

The United States on Wednesday doubled to $10 million its reward for the capture of the ISIS supremo, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced.

The US had already offered $5 million for Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli before he was identified as the successor to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed by US commandos in an October raid in Syria, AFP reported.

Born in 1976, al-Mawli issued edicts to justify the persecution of the Yazidi minority, a campaign that the United Nations has described as genocide.

The militants killed thousands of Yazidis and abducted and enslaved thousands more women and girls as they rampaged across the Middle East.

Al-Mawli was born in the Iraqi city of Mosul.



At UN, Panama Reminds Trump He Should Not Be Threatening Force 

Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
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At UN, Panama Reminds Trump He Should Not Be Threatening Force 

Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)

Panama has alerted the United Nations - in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday - to US President Donald Trump's remarks during his inauguration speech, when he vowed that the United States would take back the Panama Canal.

Panama's UN Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba noted that under the founding UN Charter, countries "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state".

The letter was addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and circulated to the 15-member Security Council. Panama is a member of the council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, for 2025-26.

Doubling down on his pre-inauguration threat to reimpose US control over the canal, Trump on Monday accused Panama of breaking the promises it made for the final transfer of the strategic waterway in 1999 and of ceding its operation to China - claims that the Panamanian government has strongly denied.

"We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back," Trump said just minutes after being sworn in for a second four-year term.

Alfaro de Alba shared Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino's rejection of Trump's remarks.

"Dialogue is always the way to clarify the points mentioned without undermining our right, total sovereignty and ownership of our Canal," Mulino said.

The United States largely built the canal and administered territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the United States and Panama signed a pair of accords in 1977 that paved the way for the canal's return to full Panamanian control. The United States handed it over in 1999 after a period of joint administration.