Manhunt to find Bin Laden son amid fears of new al Qaeda terror plot against West
AMERICA today offered a $1 million bounty to track down Osama bin Laden’s son amid escalating fears that al Qaeda is plotting new terror atrocities in the West.
Intelligence chiefs in the US and Europe believe al Qaeda is rebuilding and is determined to carry out more “spectacular” terrorist attacks.
While Islamic State has dominated the headlines as the “poster boy” of terrorism, al Qaeda’s leadership, command and control structures and methods of communication remain in place, often relatively intact. Washington put up the $1 million (£750,000) reward for information on the whereabouts of Hamza bin Laden, who is seen as an “emerging al Qaeda leader”.
“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,” the US State Department said. “He has inspiring attacks, despite being geographically crushed in Syria, with a few hundred fighters making a last stand in the eastern village of Baghuz.
But al Qaeda is still seen as relatively strong in Afghanistan, as well as having a presence in Pakistan, Yemen, South East Asia including the Philippines and Indonesia, and the Maghreb region of north Africa, where special forces from several nations are targeting Islamist extremists.
Its current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, believed to be 67, is an ageing figure compared to many younger IS fanatics, but security chiefs still believe al Qaeda poses a danger to the West.
It tends to direct attacks from overseas rather than inspire them and its main motivation remains to target the West with “spectacular” attacks, according to sources. Hamza bin Laden, now believed to be in his late 20s or early 3 0 s , w a s n a me d by A me r i c a a s a “specially designated global terrorist” in January 2017. Some reports suggested he is hiding near the Afghanistan/ Pakistan border.
The State Department, in its bounty offer, encouraged anyone with informat i o n o n h i s wh e re a b o u t s to come forward. “Relocation possible. Submit a tip, get paid,” its post added.
United Nations members were urged yesterday by the State Department’s counter-terrorism coordinator Nathan A Sales to freeze Hamza’s assets, comply with a travel ban, and enforce an arms embargo barring the sale or transfer of weapons. Hamza has posted messages online calling for revenge attacks on the West in retaliation for the death of his father.
The youngest of the Saudi-born terror chief’s 18 sons, he is reportedly married to the daughter of Mohammed Atta, one of the al Qaeda hijackers who crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre in the attacks on September 11, 2001, that claimed the l ive s o f n e a rly 3 ,0 0 0 people. He is believed to be the son of Khairiah Sabar, one of his father’s three surviving wives, who was living with bin Laden when he was shot and killed by the US special forces, along with another of his sons, Khalid.
Hamza is thought to have lived for many years in Iran, where members of the Bin Laden family were offered the protection of military and intelligence officials. He is understood to have crossed into Syria at some point and made his way to the remote and lawless tribal territories between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He appeared in a video at a brother’s wedding in early 2001 when he was a young boy reading out a diatribe against the US, saying “I am warning America that its people will face terrible consequences if they chase my father. Fighting Americans is the basis of faith.”
In 2005, he was also reportedly seen taking part in an al Qaeda attack on Pakistani forces and he is said to have urged the “destruction” of America, Britain, France and Denmark and said: “Grant victory to the Taliban over the gangs of infidels.”
Another of his brothers, Saad, was killed in 2009 in a drone strike in Afghanistan.
One of his half-brothers, Hassan alAttas, said last year that Hamza had told him: “I am going to avenge my father.”