A new US intelligence report gathered that the al Qaeda leader’s son had died, but the report did not discuss details of where or when the younger bin Laden died or whether the US played a role in his demise, and President Trump declined comment at the White House.
“I don’t want to comment on it. I don’t want to comment on that,” Trump said.
Hamza bin Laden’s last known public statement, released by al Qaeda in 2018, included threats against Saudi Arabia and called on the people of the Arabian peninsula to revolt against their rulers.
Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 during a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Hamza was not found at the compound, but letters seized from the compound suggested the top 9/11 plotter wanted his son to join him in Abbottabad so he could groom him as a leader.
“Hamza is being prepared for a leadership role in the organization his father founded” and was “likely to be perceived favorably by the jihadi rank-and-file. With the Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ apparently on the verge of collapse, Hamza is now the figure best placed to reunify the global jihadi movement,” counterterror expert and former FBI agent Ali Soufan said in 2017.
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