The United States is to offer millions of dollars in rewards for information leading to the capture of leaders of the Somali militant group Al Shabaab.
It is the first time the US has offered money for specific members of the group, which announced its allegiance to al-Qaeda earlier this year.
It has put a price of $7m (£4.5m) on Al Shabaab's founder and commander, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamud Godane.
It comes as African Union forces make key advances against the group.
Al Shabaab still controls much of the country but is under pressure from Ethiopian troops, pro-government militias and the African Union force, which has US and European funding.
African Union and Somali government forces last week captured the town of Afmadow, a strategic militant base in the south of the country.
Allegiance
The group released a joint video with al-Qaeda in February, announcing that the two groups had merged.
Appearing on the video, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamud Godane, who is also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, said he "pledged obedience" to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has a $25m bounty on his head.
The US added al-Shabab to its list of foreign terrorist organisations in 2008.
In April, it warned that it continues to receive threats against targets within Kenya.
The 2002 twin attacks on Israeli targets near the Kenyan resort of Mombasa were allegedly planned in Somalia by an al-Qaeda cell, while the US believes some of the al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the 1998 attacks on its embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam then fled to Somalia.
Under its Rewards for Justice programme, the US is offering money for six other key members of al-Shabab in a total fund of over $30m.
