The U.S. State Department on Tuesday placed the deputy leader of Hamas as well as several senior Hezbollah officials on its most wanted list, offering a substantial reward for information leading to their capture.
Deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri and Hezbollah officials Khalil Yusif Mahmoud Harb and Haytham Ali Tabatabaei each now have a $5 million price on their heads under the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program.
The State Department also designated Jawad Nasrallah, the son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as a terrorist, accusing him of orchestrating attacks against Israel in the West Bank.
The department also blacklisted the Al-Mujahideen Brigades, which it said had links to Hezbollah and had plotted a number of attacks against Israeli targets from a base in the Palestinian territories.
"Today's designations seek to deny Nasrallah and AMB the resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks," the State Department said in a statement. It said the actions denied Nasrallah and AMB access to the U.S. financial system.
The statement said that both Hamas and Hezbollah receive weapons, training and funding from Iran.
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury added four Hezbollah officials who are linked to Hezbollah activities in Iraq – Shibl Muhsin Ubayd al-Zaydi, Yusuf Hashim, Adnan Hussein Kawtharani and Muhammad Abd-al-Hadi Farhat – to its Specially Designated Global Terrorists list.
