In May of this year, the State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Adnani, who was born as Taha Sobhi Falaha in Syria. That statement noted his "repeated calls for attacks against Westerns and (his having) vowed 'defeat' for the United States."
In June 2014, Adnani was the first to declare a "caliphate" for parts of Syria and Iraq indicating ISIS' aim of not just being a terrorist group, but a governing entity.
Yet he was also vocal in calling for attacks outside the region, including his assertion that ISIS supporters in the West have a religious duty to launch lone-wolf attacks. Adnani renewed that call -- which analysts characterized as a game changer, not to mention a possible inspiration for ISIS-inspired attacks in North America, Europe and Australia -- in January.