OSAMA’S SON ‘KILLED IN U.S. OPERATION’
Trump confirms top al-Qaeda member Hamza bin Laden died some time in last two years
PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in a counter-terrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
United States media reported more than a month ago, citing intelligence officials, that the younger bin Laden had been killed some time in the last two years in an operation that involved the US.
Secretary of Defence Mark Esper said last month that it was “his understanding” that Hamza, who was thought to be about 30, was dead.
But Trump had not publicly confirmed the news until Saturday — three days after the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks by al-Qaeda, and a week after Trump’s surprise announcement that a planned secret meeting with Taliban leaders at the Camp David presidential retreat had fallen through.
“Hamza bin Laden, the high-ranking alQaeda member and son of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a US counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region,” Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.
“The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives alQaeda of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group.”
The statement did not specify the timing of the operation, how his long-rumoured death had been confirmed, or even specifically in which country it occurred.
US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, welcomed the development, saying on Twitter that it sent “a strong signal that America never forgets and we will go wherever the terrorists take us to protect our homeland”.
Hamza, the 15th of Osama bin Laden’s 20 children and a son of his third wife, was “emerging as a leader in the al-Qaeda franchise”, the State Department said in announcing a US$1 million (RM4.2 million) bounty on his head in February.
It said Hamza was married to a daughter of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a senior alQaeda leader indicted by a US federal grand jury in 1998 for his role in the bombings that year of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya — attacks overseen by the senior Bin Laden.
Sometimes dubbed the “crown prince of jihad”, Hamza had issued calls for attacks on the US and other countries, especially to avenge his father’s killing by US forces in Pakistan in May 2011, the department said.
Colin Clarke, an analyst with the Rand Corporation and the Soufan Centre think tanks, said he was “still sceptical he had a major role operationally”.
“But obviously he’s got the DNA — the bin Laden name.”
Al-Qaeda has yet to confirm the US announcement.
Barak Mendelsohn, a political science professor and terror specialist at Haverford College, called it “surprising” that so long after Hamza’s death was first reported, “al-Qaeda has yet to release a formal announcement with details about how he died, and a eulogy”.
In 2017, Hamza was placed on the US terror blacklist, seen as a potent future figurehead for the group then led by Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Clarke said Hamza’s death might open the way for the rise in al-Qaeda of younger and even more radical leaders.
“The unknown actually is what’s more dangerous,” he said.
Just this week, al-Qaeda’s small Syrian affiliate, Hurras al-Din, released a message calling the group “a producer of leaders” and saying it is used to overcoming the loss of its chiefs, Mendelsohn pointed out.
“The reality is that while Hamza was being groomed as a potential replacement for al-Zawahiri, the group could never focus on grooming only one potential heir,” he said.
“They cannot predict who will actually be alive when al-Zawahiri departs the scene.”
In Kabul, the Afghan Taliban rescinded a months-long ban on the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) working in areas under their control yesterday and restored security guarantees for those working for the organisation.
The militants and the ICRC “consented to following the old agreement on top of new promises in humanitarian aid leading to the Islamic Emirate granting ICRC permission of resuming their activities,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement.