US government offers $25m reward for Bin Laden in Pakistan TV ads

NEW YORK - The US government has launched an advertising campaign on Pakistani television offering up to $25m (£13m) in reward money for information that will help capture Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The aim of the campaign is to put pressure on Bin Laden, the man behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and to get information from local people that might help locate him. The ads will appear on Pakistan's biggest television network and follow a radio campaign along similar lines.

In the ad, images of Bin Laden, along with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri, are shown and a voiceover in the ad says: "Who can stop the terrorists? Only you."

It then offers a phone number, an email address and the URL . The ads appear in Urdu and other local languages. The US government is also offering $25m for Abu Mus' ab Al-Zarqawi who is linked to Al Qaeda and is behind the insurgency in Iraq.

Bin Laden's exact whereabouts have not been known since coalition forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001, but it has long been suspected that he is hiding in border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Special forces have been hunting him, but so far have had no luck. Last month, the government agreed to send 800 Royal Marine to Afghanistan to step up the search.

The force includes members of the elite Royal Marine Brigade Recce Force, who were also involved in the hunt three years ago with US Special Forces.

According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, the programme has seen $57m handed out in reward money, which has led to the capture of other Al Qaeda members.

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