Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

US Offers $5 Million to Find Murderer of American Teacher in Yemen | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55369444
Caption:

Militants from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have been behind several plots against Western targets (AFP Photo)


Washington- The Rewards for Justice program of the US State Department has offered to pay $5 million for information leading to those responsible for the murder of American national Joel Shrum in Yemen in 2012.

Shrum, 29, was fatally shot by a gunman on the back of a motorcycle while he was on his way to work at a nongovernmental organization on March 18, 2012, in the city of Taez, according to the State Department.

The attack was claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Nearly five years after the attack, the State Department announced Wednesday that it is offering “a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual who committed, conspired to commit, or aided or abetted in the commission of the murder of US citizen Joel Shrum.”

The department noted that Shrum had been an administrator and English teacher at the International Training and Development Center, “one of the longest standing international development organizations in Yemen.”

The State Department said the $5 million bounty comes under its Rewards for Justice program, which has paid out more than $125 million since its creation in 1984.

In a related development, two suspected members of al-Qaeda were killed on Tuesday in an air raid on the southern Hadramawt province, a security official said.

The two, going by the names Abu Jandal al-Hadrami and Abu Hashim al-Sharuri, were killed in what appeared to be a US air strike, the official said, requesting that his name be withheld.

The United States has conducted more than 40 air raids, including drone strikes, against AQAP in March alone.

At least 25 suspected AQAP members have been killed in the raids.