Hamza, son of Osama bin Laden. Some officials and analysts believe he
might try to unify jihadists around the world. PHOTO | AL-JAZEERA | AFP
WASHINGTON,
The
United States on Thursday offered a $1 million reward for information
on a son of late ...
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, seeing him as an
emerging face of extremism.
The
location of Hamza bin Laden, sometimes dubbed the "crown prince of
jihad," has been the subject of speculation for years with reports of
him living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria or under house arrest in
Iran.
"Hamza bin Laden is the son of
deceased former AQ leader Osama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in
the AQ franchise," a State Department statement said, referring to
Al-Qaeda.
The State Department said that it would offer $1 million for information leading to his location in any country.
Bin
Laden, who according to the United States is around 30, has threatened
attacks against the United States to avenge the 2011 killing of his
father, who was living in hiding in the Pakistani garrison town of
Abbottabad, by US special forces.
US intelligence agencies increasingly see the
younger bin Laden as a successor to his father for the mantle of global
jihad, especially as the even more extreme Islamic State group is down
to its last sliver of land in Syria.
In
2015, bin Laden released an audio message urging jihadists in Syria to
unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to
"liberating Palestine."
And in a
message a year later, following in the footsteps of his father, he urged
the overthrow of the leadership in their native Saudi Arabia.
Osama bin Laden's three surviving wives and his children were quietly allowed to return to Saudi Arabia after his killing.
But
Hamza bin Laden's whereabouts have been a matter of dispute. He is
believed to have spent years along with his mother in Iran, despite
Al-Qaeda's strident denunciations of the Shiite branch of Islam that
dominates the country.
Observers say
that the clerical regime in Tehran kept him under house arrest as a way
to maintain pressure on rival Saudi Arabia as well as on Al-Qaeda,
dissuading the Sunni militants from attacking Iran.
One
of Hamza bin Laden's half-brothers told The Guardian last year that
Hamza's whereabouts were unknown but that he may be in Afghanistan.
He
also said that Hamza bin Laden married the daughter of Mohammed Atta,
the lead hijacker in Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks on the United
States that killed some 3,000 people and sparked the US intervention in
Afghanistan.
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