Osama bin Laden's son Hamza, heir to Al-Qaeda leadership, killed: US media

International News

Osama bin Laden's son Hamza, chosen heir to the leadership of Al-Qaeda, has been killed, US media reported Wednesday citing American officials.
NBC News said three US officials had confirmed they had information of Hamza bin Laden's death, but gave no details of the place or date.
The New York Times subsequently cited two US officials saying they had confirmation that he was killed during the last two years in an operation that involved the United States.
Questioned by reporters in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump did not confirm or deny the NBC report.
"I don't want to comment on it," he said.
Both reports suggested that bin Laden may have been killed well before the US State Department announced a $1 million bounty on his head in February 2019.
The 15th of Osama bin Laden's 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, thought to be about 30 years old, was "emerging as a leader in the Al-Qaeda franchise," the State Department said in announcing the reward.
Sometimes dubbed the "crown prince of jihad, he had put out audio and video messages calling for attacks on the United States and other countries, especially to avenge his father's killing by US forces in Pakistan in May 2011, the department said.

 Documents seized in the raid on his father's house in Abbottabad suggested Hamza was being groomed as heir to the Al-Qaeda leadership. US forces also found a video of the wedding of Hamza to the daughter of another senior Al-Qaeda official that is believed to have taken place in Iran...Read More

Pak intelligence didn't know about Osama: Ex-CIA chief counters Imran Khan

International News

Former CIA Director Gen David Petraeus has said that he is "convinced" that the Pakistani intelligence agencies did not know Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan, countering Prime Minister Imran Khan's claims that the ISI provided a lead to the Central Investigative Agency (CIA) that helped the US track down and kill the al-Qaeda chief in 2011.
Prime Minister Khan's statement on Osama during an interview with Fox News on Monday was significant as Pakistan had so far denied that it had any information about the hideout of the al-Qaeda chief before he was killed in a covert raid by a US Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) team in the garrison city of Abbottabad.Petraeus, during an interactive session at the Indian Consulate here on Tuesday following his address on the topic of the Indo-Pacific, however, asserted the US is convinced that the Pakistani intelligence was not aware that the terrorist leader was hiding in their country.
"We are quite convinced that the ISI, Pakistani intelligence, no one else knew that he (Osama) was there (in Pakistan). They were not harbouring him or hiding him or anything like that. We have very good insights on that. We probably differ with those who said that the Pakistanis were allowing him to live in that particular compound in Abbottabad," he said.
Petraeus said that during counter-insurgency campaigns, Pakistani authorities could never close in on North Wazirstan where terror outfits such as the Haqqani network, al-Qaeda and others had their headquarters and some of their forces.

 He added that the US learnt later on that Osama was not in that area but near the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad. "I figured out later that I had probably flown right over his compound in a helicopter as I went to address the cadets at the military academy one time," he said, referring to the Pakistan Military Academy.Petraeus, a partner in the international investment firm KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute...Read More

US offers $1 mn to find Laden son, calls him 'emerging leader of Al-Qaeda'

Current Affairs:

The United States on Thursday offered a $1 million reward for information on a son of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, seeing him as an emerging face of extremism.

The location of Hamza bin Laden, sometimes dubbed the "crown prince of jihad," has been the subject of speculation for years with reports of him living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria or under house arrest in Iran.

"Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former AQ leader Osama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the AQ franchise," a State Department statement said, referring to Al-Qaeda.
The State Department said that it would offer $1 million for information leading to his location in any country.

Bin Laden, who according to the United States is around 30, has threatened attacks against the United States to avenge the 2011 killing of his father, who was living in hiding in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, by US special forces.

US intelligence agencies increasingly see t he younger bin Laden as a successor to his father for the mantle of global jihad, especially as the even more extreme Islamic State group is down to its last sliver of land in Syria.

In 2015, bin Laden released an audio message urging jihadists in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to "liberating Palestine."

 And in a message a year later, following in the footsteps of his father, he urged the overthrow of the leadership in their native Saudi Arabia..Read More