The Ginger Jihadist: Islamic State Commander Omar al-Shishani Tops Jihadist 'Most Wanted' List

The United States has released a dossier which includes a wanted list of 14 leading jihadists and terror facilitators from Isis (now known as the Islamic State) and al-Qaida.

The list names figures with key roles in the transportation and training of foreign fighters in Syria, the financing of terror activity, the trading of arms and the planning of kidnap operations.

The most prominent names on the list are those of Tarkhan Batirashvili, a Georgian national known as Omar al Shishani who has risen to become a top commander for IS, and Tariq Al-Harzi, a high-profile IS official who has planned hundreds of suicide attacks around the world, raised $2 million in donations from Qatari backers and plotted an attack on UN staff in Lebanon.

Another names include Amru al-Absi, an IS leader charged with kidnapping in the Syrian city of Aleppo; Salim Benghalem, a Frenchman convicted of murder who conducts "executions" in Syria; Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a Kosovan Albanian who posted images of his beheadings; and Murad Margoshvili, a Chechen comrade of Shishani who created a terrorist training base near the Turkish border.

The US Treasury said that those named on the list had made efforts "to send financial and material support and foreign terrorist fighters to Syria and elsewhere" and, by naming them, hoped to challenge their ability "to raise, transport and access funds that facilitate foreign fighters".

The US also added two terrorist organisations to the terror blacklist, the Chechen-led Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar and the Moroccan-led Harakat Sham al Islam.

Shishani is considered one of the most influential leaders of the Syrian opposition, after a series of assaults on military bases near Aleppo, and as a mastermind of the capture of the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

His chief motivation for fighting in Syria is reportedly to weaken one of Russia's key allies but, in other interviews, he has talked of his hate for Americans as "the enemies of Allah and the enemies of Islam".

These extremist beliefs appear to have stemmed from his 16 months in a Georgian prison after being charged for possessing illegal weapons in 2010.