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State Department Offers Rewards of Up to $5 Million for Terror Suspects

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The State Department is offering rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture and conviction of each of two terror suspects, both Tunisian-born Canadians who are believed to have links to the al-Qaida network.

The aim is to encourage people to come forward with information about Abderraouf Jdey and Abdelaziz Boussora. Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Wednesday they were believed to have “extensive histories of extremist terrorist threats and links” to the network headed by Osama bin Laden.

They are being sought about possible terrorist threats in the United States, the U.S. official said.

Both are naturalized Canadian citizens. Jdey is 49, Boussora 51, and they often use aliases.

Boussara “has declared his intention to become a martyr in a suicide attack, and they are believed to be traveling together,” Ereli said.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft identified Jdey in 2002 as one of five men whose video-recorded messages promising to carry out suicide attacks were found amid rubble in Afghanistan. Ashcroft identified him under the name Al Rauf bin Al Habib Bin Yousef al-Jiddi, one of the names Jdey uses.

Neither suspect was said to have carried out an attack or to have been involved in a specific plot.