Terrorists Offering Rewards, U.S. Says

Al Qaeda and Taliban supporters in Afghanistan are offering rewards of up to $100,000 for capturing or killing Westerners, U.S. Army officials said Friday.

Pamphlets slipped under people’s doors during the night promise $50,000 for any Westerner delivered dead, and double that for people taken alive, said Maj. Iris Hurd of the Army’s Information Operations division.

The pamphlets, known as “night letters,” also threaten Afghans with violence if they support the coalition troops or the interim administration of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, Hurd said.

Hurd would not show any of the pamphlets but said coalition forces had some. She would not elaborate on whether they contained information about how the rewards were to be collected.

Flight Lt. Tony Marshall, a spokesman for the British-led International Security Assistance Force, said the peacekeepers providing security in the capital, Kabul, do not know of any new threats against foreigners.