The United States is offering $7 million for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil, who orchestrated a series of terror bombings in the 1980s that killed hundreds of American service members.
The State Department announced that on the 40th anniversary of Hezbollah's terror strike on the U.S. embassy compound in Lebanon, it is upping the price for information on Aqil, a member of the Iranian-backed terror group's Jihad Council.
Aqil, the State Department said, was a "principal member of Islamic Jihad Organization— Hezbollah's terrorist cell—that claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the U.S. Marine barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel." Aqil in the 1980s also took Americans hostage.
Aqil, who has escaped the American justice system for decades, is believed to be in either Lebanon or Syria, both Iranian strongholds with deep ties to the Islamic Republic's terrorism network. The U.S. government in 2019 officially designated Aqil as a global terrorist. Hezbollah was designated as a global terrorist organization in 1997.
Hezbollah serves as a cog in Iran's regional terrorism enterprise and is responsible for strikes on American and Israeli outposts in the Middle East.