US offers $5 million reward for suspected militants

WASHINGTON, Thursday (Reuters) The United States offered up to $5 million in rewards on Wednesday for two men of Tunisian descent whom U.S officials believe have ties to al Qaeda and may plan or launch attacks on the United States or Canada.

The U.S. State Department identified the men as Abderraouf Ben Habib Jdey and Faker Ben Abdelaziz Boussora, and said they acquired Canadian citizenship in the 1990s, their whereabouts were unknown and they were thought to be traveling together.

The Canadian embassy in Washington said it was unable to immediately verify whether the men were Canadian citizens. The two may have been in Turkey in early 2002 and U.S. authorities fear they may seek "to return to Canada or the United States to plan or participate in a terrorist attack," the U.S. "Rewards for Justice" program said on its Web site.

The department offers rewards of $5 million or more for 35 people under the program, including up to $25 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Osama bin Laden, whose al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. According to the Rewards for Justice Web site, Jdey, 39, and Boussora, 41, moved to Canada in the 1990s and acquired Canadian citizenship in 1995 and 1999 respectively.

The Web site said Jdey, also known as Faruq al- Tunisi, "has been closely linked with al Qaeda operatives and involved in plans for conducting hijacking/terrorist operations."