Find Bin Laden Jnr
US put $1million bounty on Osama’s favourite son over fears the ‘Crown Prince of Jihad’ could revive Al Qaeda
Claimed his first ‘kills’
Taken up his father’s mantle
His father was the architect of 9/11 and once the world’s most wanted man.
And now Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza is discovering what it’s like to have a bounty on his head.
The Al Qaeda founder’s favourite son, nicknamed the ‘Crown Prince of Jihad’, was placed in America’s crosshairs yesterday with the announcement of a $1 million (£750,000) reward for information leading to his capture or death. Describing this chip off the old block, believed to be about 30, as an ‘emerging leader’ in the terror franchise, the Us state Department tweeted: ‘ WANTED. Up to $1 million for information on Hamza bin Laden, an emerging Al Qaeda leader.
‘Hamza is the son of [Osama] bin Laden and has threatened attacks against the United states and allies. Relocation possible. submit a tip, get paid.’
The bounty offer came on the day that saudi Arabia stripped Hamza of his citizenship and marks a significant milestone in the career of the increasingly influential jihadi who – in his most recent verified photograph – resembles a younger, cleanershaven version of his father.
Believed to be hiding near the Afghan- Pakistani border, Hamza was officially designated a terrorist by America just over two years ago. However, he first appeared on the authorities’ radar following the 2011 assassination of Osama by Us Navy seals. The soldiers who raided the terror chief’s compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad recovered documents suggesting that Hamza – who was largely raised in iran – was being groomed as his successor.
since then, the fortunes of Al Qaeda have waned, thanks partly to the rise of rival fanatics islamic state, and partly to the uninspiring manner of its nominal leader, a bespectacled Egyptian strategist named Ayman al-Zawahiri.
However, the growing influence of the more charismatic Bin Laden Jnr has sparked concern that he could revitalise the terror group.
One of between 20 and 26 children whom Osama fathered by six different wives, Hamza is reported to have wed the daughter of Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian terrorist who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 9/11.
Hamza grew up in an environment of guns and terror plots and was taught how to use weapons before he was ten. His mother was Osama’s favourite wife. Called Khairiah sabar, she was known as Umm Hamza, meaning mother of Hamza, her only boy, who also became his father’s favourite son.
Propaganda videos were released of a young Hamza, aping his father’s white turban and fatigues, overseeing military drills of other young jihadis and leading them in chants and prayers against the West.
By 14, Hamza had claimed his first ‘kills’. in a video called The Mujahideen of Waziristan, released in 2005, Hamza and fellow Al Qaeda terrorists are seen in a fierce firefight with Pakistani government soldiers on the border with Afghanistan, with the camera showing a triumphant Hamza in camouflage gear clutching a gun among several dead enemy soldiers. Two of Bin Laden’s other sons died because of their terror activities, and Hamza was reportedly wounded by bounty hunters chasing his father in the mountains of Afghanistan after 9/11.
Another brother, Omar, who rejected terrorism and now lives in Egypt, has recalled how a teenage Hamza read out a poem calling for jihad during a family wedding in Afghanistan. ‘What crime have we committed to be forced to leave our country?’ said Hamza as his family cheered. ‘We will fight the kaffir (infidels) for ever!’
Usually wearing his father’s trademark turban and carrying a Kalashnikov, in about 2012 he began releasing video messages calling for the blood of Western ‘infidels’ to be spilt. An early one warned his enemies in the West that ‘we will continue striking and targeting you in your country and abroad’.
in what Arabic media described as a strategic step to prove he has taken up his father’s mantle, he railed for 21 minutes against the West before calling on Muslims around the world to avenge his father’s death. ‘if you think that your sinful crime that you committed in Abbottabad has passed without punishment, then you are wrong,’ he said in one video.
in other videos, he has called for ‘lone wolf’ attacks, where Muslims living in Europe randomly murder ‘infidel targets’ – a tactic horrifically demonstrated in France and Germany in recent years.
He has also been monitored urging rival extremist groups fighting in syria to join forces and attack targets around the world, instead of concentrating on building a ‘caliphate’.
His closest brush with death came on May 2, 2011, during the raid on his father’s compound.
Hamza was living in the custom-built property in Abbottabad, an affluent town to the north of the Pakistan capital islamabad, along with Osama’s wives, as well as a number of other relatives.
As troops descended on the property, his sibling, Khalid, encountered soldiers and was shot dead. The seals then encountered Osama on the third floor, and fired at him as he darted into a bedroom. He was found cowering inside, standing behind a woman with his hands on her shoulders.
Robert O’Neill, a long-serving Navy seal, shot Bin Laden twice in the head and once in the body as he fell. in the ensuing chaos, Hamza slipped out.
But now, Us officials are hoping that a million-dollar reward will help them get a second chance at taking out the socalled ‘Crown Prince of Jihad’.