US offers $ 10 million For Hezbollah refugee over killing on Hariri
WASHINGTON – The United States has offered a $ 10 million reward for information to locate or identify a refugee suspected of Hezbollah convicted of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The State Department said it would offer the reward for “information leading to the location or identification” of Salim Ayyash or “information leading to prevent him from participating in an act of international terrorism against a US person or property.”
The Special Court for Lebanon, set up by the United Nations in the Netherlands, sentenced Ayyash in absentia in December to life in prison for the 2005 assassination of Hariri.
Ayyash, 57, is believed to be in hiding in Lebanon, where Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has refused to hand him over.
The court has since said it will also try Ayyash over three other attacks on Lebanese politicians in the mid-2000s.
The State Department said Ayyash also planned to harm U.S. military personnel.
Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, was allegedly killed because he opposed Lebanon’s control of Syria, which is allied with Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim movement backed by Iran.
The assassination triggered the Cedar Revolution, which forced Syrian troops out.
The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist group, but the movement exercises political power in Lebanon and has seats in parliament.
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