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BNO News WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- The United States on Thursday announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location of Russia's most wanted terrorist Doku Umarov.
The U.S. Department of State authorized the reward and added the rebel Chechen leader to the Rewards for Justice Program. Umarov is the senior leader and operational commander of the North Caucasus-based Caucasus Emirate (CE) group.
Umarov was also included in the United Nations' Consolidated List pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1267. The terrorist leader has claimed responsibility for the January's Domodevo airport bombing, the Moscow subway bombing and the attack on rail traffic between St. Petersburg and Moscow in 2010.
The Caucasus Emirate group (or Imarat Kavkaz) uses bombings, shootings and attempted assassinations to provoke a revolution and expel the Russian government from the North Caucasus region.
Umarov was first designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under E.O. 13224 in June 2010 and listed at the UN 1267 al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions on March 10, 2011. He as issued several public statements encouraging followers to commit violent acts against its enemies, including the U.S., Israel, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
"The designation of Caucasus Emirate is in response to the threats posed to the United States and Russia," said Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, the Department of State’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism. "The attacks perpetrated by Caucasus Emirate illustrate the global nature of the terrorist problem we face today."
Thursday's designation was one phase of the U.S. response to the threat posed by Caucasus Emirate and will degrade its ability to mount attacks on Russian interests by disrupting the flow of financial and other assistance to the group.
Umarov was born on April 13, 1964 in Kharsenoi, Chechnya, in the former Soviet Union. This year, he claimed responsibility for organizing the bombing at Moscow's Domodevo airport on January 24, when a suicide bomber killed 37 people and injured around 200.
In December 2009, investigators identified a May 15, 2009 suicide bombing outside the Chechnya Interior Ministry as being organized by Umarov. Previously, the Caucasus Emirate attacked a Russia high-speed Nevsky Express train in November 2009.
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