The United States is offering a reward of up to $1m (£750,000) for information about one of the sons of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
Hamza Bin Laden is emerging as a leader of the Islamist militant group, officials say.
He is thought to be based near the Afghan-Pakistani border.
In recent years, he has released audio and video messages calling on followers to attack the US and its Western allies in revenge for his father’s killing.
In 2011, US special forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. He approved the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Hamza Bin Laden, who is believed to be about 30 years old, was officially designated by the US as a global terrorist two years ago.
The US state department says he married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, who hijacked one of the four commercial aircraft used in the 2001 attacks, and crashed it into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York.
WANTED. Up to $1 million for information on Hamza bin Laden, an emerging al-Qa'ida leader. Hamza is son of Usama bin Laden and has threatened attacks against the United States and allies. Relocation possible. Submit a tip, get paid. https://t.co/LtBVhsrwTc #RFJ pic.twitter.com/gmx5hkoSzQ
— Rewards for Justice عربي (@Rewards4Justice) February 28, 2019
The US government website, Reward for Justice wrote of Bin Laden as follows:
Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former al-Qa’ida leader Usama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the al-Qa’ida franchise. He has released audio and video messages on the Internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by U.S. military forces.
Hamza married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker and a mastermind of al-Qa’ida’s September 2001 airline terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Usama bin Laden’s letters seized from the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where bin Laden was killed indicate that he was grooming Hamza to replace him as leader of al-Qa’ida.
Al-Qa’ida was established in 1988. The group helped finance, recruit, transport, and train fighters for the Afghan resistance against the former Soviet Union. In 1996, al-Qa’ida issued a declaration of war against the United States.
Al-Qa’ida and its supporters conducted three bombings targeting U.S. troops in Aden in December 1992, and claimed responsibility for shooting down U.S. helicopters and killing U.S. soldiers in Somalia in 1993. Al-Qa’ida also carried out the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing up to 300 individuals and injuring more than 5,000. In October 2000, al-Qa’ida conducted a suicide attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen with an explosive-laden boat, killing 17 U.S. Navy sailors and injuring 39 others.
On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qa’ida members hijacked and crashed four U.S. commercial jets – two into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 civilians, police, and first responders were killed. The dead included U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from at least 77 countries.
Hattip to BBC
