The president of the United States, Donald Trump, confirmed on Saturday that Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in an anti-terrorism operation along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
US media reported in late July and early August, citing intelligence officials, that young Bin Laden had been killed at some point in the last two years in an operation that involved the United States.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed the death last month, saying he "understood" that Bin Laden had died, but that Trump and other senior officials had not publicly confirmed the news.
"Hamza bin Laden, a senior member of Al Qaeda and son of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a US counter-terrorism operation in the Afghanistan / Pakistan region," Trump said in a brief statement issued by the White House.
"The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives Al Qaeda of important leadership skills and symbolic connection with his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group."
The statement did not specify the time of the operation.
The 15 of Osama bin Laden's 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, who is believed to be in his 30s, was "emerging as a leader in the Al Qaeda franchise," the State Department said in announcing a $ 1 million reward in his head in February 2019, perhaps after his real death.
Sometimes nicknamed the "crown prince of jihad," he had issued audio and video messages calling for attacks against the US. UU. And other countries, especially to avenge his father's murder by US forces in Pakistan in May 2011, the department said.
That work made it important to attract a new generation of followers to the extremist group that carried out the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, which left almost 3,000 dead.
Heir apparent
The death of Osama bin Laden and the rise of the most virulent militant group in the Islamic State saw Al Qaeda lose money with the younger jihadists.
But the proliferation of branches and associated militant groups in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere has underlined its continued power.
Documents seized in the raid on his father's house in Abbottabad suggested that Hamza was being prepared as heir to the leadership of Al Qaeda.
US forces also found a video of Hamza's wedding with the daughter of another senior al Qaeda official believed to have taken place in Iran.
In 2017, Hamza was included in the black horror list of the United States, seen as a powerful forward-looking mask for the group then led by Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1505185/trump-confirms-death-of-al-qaeda-heir-hamza-bin-laden
