The U.S. State Department has announced a $5 million reward for information on the whereabouts of top al-Qaida commander Ilyas Kashmiri.

Kashmiri heads al-Qaida's military operations wing and is also the leader of the terrorist group Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami or HuJI ("Movement of Islamic Holy War"). In August 2010, he was designated a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" and his outfit HuJI was labeled a "Foreign Terrorist Organization."

HuJI was behind the suicide attack against the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan in March 2006. The attack killed four people including U.S. diplomat David Foy, and injured several others. In addition, Kashmiri is alleged to be behind the suicide bomb attack on a top CIA base in the eastern Afghan province of Khost in December 2009 that killed at least eight Americans.

Kashmiri figures prominently in two terrorism indictments issued in Chicago. In January 2010, Kashmiri was indicted for his role in a plot to attack the offices of the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten and its employees. The charges were part of a broader indictment against American Lashkar-e-Tayyiba operative David Headley for his role in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people. A separate complaint in March 2010 charged Chicago cab driver and Pakistan native Raja Lahrasib Khan with attempting to funnel money to al-Qaida in Pakistan. The complaint alleged Khan had known Kashmiri for about 15 years and sent money to Kashmiri through an associate in Pakistan.