US President Donald Trump has confirmed that the son of Osama Bin Laden, Hamza, was killed in a US “counterterrorism operation.” The demise of Bin Laden’s doable successor was reported earlier this 12 months.
“Hamza Bin Laden, the high-ranking Al-Qaeda member and son of Osama Bin Laden, was killed in a United States counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan area,” stated an announcement from Trump’s workplace despatched to journalists on Saturday.
The demise of Hamza has disadvantaged Al-Qaeda of his “important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father.” Within Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden’s son was “responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups,” it added.
Hamza Bin Laden’s demise in an airstrike was first reported late in July. Back then, Trump stated that the person was “very threatening” to the US, however declined to supply any additional particulars. With the official affirmation of Hamza’s demise, nonetheless, it nonetheless stays unclear when – and the place – the US operation befell precisely.
Hamza made his final identified public assertion by means of an Al-Qaeda propaganda mouthpiece in 2018, threatening Saudi Arabia with terrorist assaults and calling for the Saudi monarchy to be overthrown. Son of the 9/11 assaults mastermind, born round 1989 in Jeddah, has lengthy been wished by the FBI, which supplied as much as $1 million for info on his whereabouts.
According to media reviews, Hamza was born to the daughter of one other senior Al-Qaeda member, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, identified below his alias Abu Muhammad al Masri. The man is wished for his alleged position in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.