Hamza bin
Laden, the son and rumoured heir to deceased al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is dead, according to intelligence
reportedly obtained by the United States.
Hamza bin Laden called on the people of the Arabian peninsula to
revolt in his last public statements released by the terror group’s media arm
last year, which also included threats to Saudi Arabia.
The country stripped him of his citizenship in March, when the
US State Department announced a reward of up to $1m (£817,605) for information
leading “to the identification or location in any country” of Hamza, calling
him a key al Qaeda leader.
Hamza, believed to be about 30 years old, was at his father’s
side in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks and spent time with him in
Pakistan after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan pushed much of al Qaeda’s
senior leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution.
Introduced by the organisation’s new
chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message in 2015, Hamza provided a younger
voice for the group whose aging leaders have struggled to inspire militants
around the world galvanized by ISIS, analysts said.
He called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and
threatened to take revenge against the United States for his father’s killing,
the State Department said in 2017 when it designated him as a global terrorist.
He also threatened to target Americans
abroad and urged Saudi tribes to unite with Yemen’s Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula to fight against Saudi Arabia, it said.
Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces who raided his
compound in Pakistan in 2011. Hamza was thought to be under house arrest in
Iran at the time, and documents recovered from the compound indicated that
aides had been trying to reunite him with his father.
The Saudi decision to strip him of his
citizenship was made by a royal order in November, according to a statement
published in the Um al-Qura official journal.