The United States on Monday offered a $10-million reward for information leading to the "identification or location" of the leader of the Afghanistan regional chapter of the Islamic State (ISIS) group, AFP reported.
The reward offered by the US State Department was also for any information that would aid in arresting or convicting those responsible for the "terrorist attack at the Kabul airport" on August 26, which was claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K).
The attack, which killed more than 100 people including 13 American soldiers, was launched as the United States orchestrated its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The US says that Sanaullah Ghafari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, was appointed head of ISIS-K in June 2020 by the Islamic State group.
ISIS-K is the Afghan offshoot of ISIS, which originated in Iraq and Syria. In 2014, American intelligence listed ISIS-K as a danger even greater than Al-Qaeda.
"Ghafari is responsible for approving all ISIS-K operations throughout Afghanistan and arranging funding to conduct operations," the State Department said in a statement on Monday.
In addition to the August attack, ISIS-K has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent years.
This past November, the group claimed an attack on a military hospital in Kabul in which at least 19 people were killed and 50 more were wounded.
A month earlier, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunduz province, which killed 46 people and wounded more than 140.