The United States has offered a $1 million reward for credible information on a son of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The location of Hamza bin Laden, known as the “crown prince of jihad,” has remained uncertain 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.
30-year old Bin Laden has reportedly 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.
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US intelligence agencies consider the younger bin Laden as a successor to his father for the mantle of global jihad. The speculation was also fuelled by an audio message released he released in 2015, 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.
It will be recalled that Osama bin Laden’s three surviving wives and his children were quietly allowed to return to Saudi Arabia after his killing.
However, Hamza bin Laden’s whereabouts have been a matter of dispute. He is believed to have spent years along with his mother in Iran, despite Al-Qaeda’s strident denunciations of the Shiite branch of Islam that dominates the country.
There are insinuations that the clerical regime in Tehran kept him under house arrest as a way to maintain pressure on rival Saudi Arabia as well as on Al-Qaeda, dissuading the Sunni militants from attacking Iran.
One of Hamza bin Laden’s half-brothers told The Guardian last year that Hamza’s whereabouts were unknown but that he may be in Afghanistan.
He added that Hamza bin Laden married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in Al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed some 3,000 people and sparked the US intervention in Afghanistan.
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