US President Donald Trump has confirmed that Osama Bin Laden's son Hamza Bin Laden is dead.
"Hamza bin Ladin, the high-ranking al-Qaeda member and son of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a United States counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region,” Trump said in a statement.
However, Donald Trump has not specified where and under what circumstances Hamza Bin Laden was killed.
Hamza Bin Laden's last known public statement came in 2018. It was released by Al Qaida's media arm.
In that message, Hamza Bin Laden had threatened Saudi Arabia and appealed to people in the country to revolt against the government. He was stripped of his Saudi Arabian citizenship in March 2019.
Hamza Bin Laden is believed to have been born in 1989. He went to Afghanistan with his father Osama Bin Laden in 1996. He appeared in many Al Qaida propaganda videos.
US officials had said in the month of August that Hamza Bin Laden was dead. However, no unequivocal confirmation from Donal Trump until now.
Hamza Bin Laden was seen as an heir to the dreaded terrorist and Al Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden. Osama was killed by US forces on May 2, 2011 in a commando-styled operation. Osama Bin Laden was holed-up in Pakistan's Abbottabad when he was gunned down. Osama Bin Laden's elimination caused a huge international embarrassment to Pakistan as it again brought to light how Pakistan harbours terrorists on its own soil. This is something Pakistan has been denying for decades.
Abbottabad has an army camp. In other words, the complex in which Osama Bin Laden was living in was just metres away from Pakistan Army establishment.
Osama Bin Laden's death was an unexpected blow to Al-Qaida and their calculations in Afghanistan. Not only Osama Bin Laden's death was a financial and strategic blow to the terrorist organisation but he was also a face that symbolised the terrorist activities. The words Bin Laden were enough to security agencies across the world to stand up and take notice.
It was precisely because of this that Hamza Bin Laden would have been a new rallying point for Al Qaida and other terrorist organisations in West Asia. But the death of Hamza Bin Laden has eliminated that possibility.
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Watch | Osama Bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden is dead, confirms US President Donald Trump
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