The $ 10 million man leading Islamic State

SOMEWHERE in the savage black-flag cities of Syria or Iraq, or perhaps lying low in suburban Australia, there’s someone with special knowledge that could earn them $10 million.

That’s the amount the US State Department is offering in its Rewards for Justice program for information leading to the arrest or capture of IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Al-Baghdadi has recently taken high billing in America’s most wanted list.

He sits only second to Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is worth $25m. He was Osama bin Laden’s personal physician and is wanted for attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and for his organising role in 9/11.

Wanted ... leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq. Picture: AP Source: AP

With reports that al-Baghdadi has personally appointed one or more Australians to command positions in IS, there are chances that information about their day-to-day movements is circling within social media.

Social media has been used to great strategic effect by the leaders of IS, but it may also prove to be their weak spot.

IS is vulnerable to betrayal by insiders who can send simple tweets as to leaders’ whereabouts, or seek to cash in on the money on offer by going to straight to the State Department.

The US pays rewards to citizens of any country and will go beyond $25m if it feels the information is worth it.

Terror links ... Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was Osama bin Laden’s personal physician. Source: Supplied

The largest payment to date was $30 million paid to an unnamed Iraqi individual who provided information that led to US forces locating and killing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay in Mosul, in 2003.

Al-Baghdadi, 45, whose name reflects his Iraqi origins, is also known as Abu Du’a and is currently the world’s most wanted active field leader.

Rarely seen in public, he was most recently sighted in early July, leading prayers at the Great Mosque in Mosul, the northern Iraqi city that has been overrun by IS.

Wreaking havoc ... fighters from the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS) during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Picture: AP Source: Supplied

According to the State Department, Al-Baghdadi has taken personal credit for ordering suicide-bombing missions against Iraqi government and military, and also everyday citizens.

Al-Baghdadi likely moves between Mosul and Raqqa, in Syria, the so-called capital of the caliphate, though this week’s US-led air strikes on Raqqa have likely forced the IS leadership to operate from portable headquarters.

Militant Islamist fighters ... wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province. Source: Supplied

A fawning biography describes al-Baghdadi as having studied at the Islamic University in Baghdad where he was “known as a preacher and erudite in Islamic culture, and Sharia knowledge and Fiqh, and an expert in the sciences of history and noble lineage”.

A Specially Designated Global Terrorist, al-Baghdadi is said to be a master of “attack and retreat” warfare and terror. He was declared Amir of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010 and oversaw its more recent transformation into IS.

The Australian Government has no reward program for information on terrorists.

Asked whether it was planning to offer rewards, the Attorney-General’s department stated: “The Australian Government expects anyone with information about terrorists or terrorist-related activity to report it immediately.”