Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Months After Operation.. Trump Announces Killing of Bin Laden's Son


Sun 15 Sep 2019 | 12:52 AM
Yassmine Elsayed

US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Hamza bin Laden, a son of slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and himself a notable figure in the militant group, was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation.

A statement issued by the White House explained that the operation took place in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, but offered no further details.

"The loss of Hamza bin Ladin not only deprives al-Qa’ida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group," Trump said, using an alternative spelling for the group that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Reuters quoted an official saying that Hamza had been killed months ago near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Trump was briefed at the time on the operation.

The U.S. government believes Hamza, who is thought to have been about 30 years old, had succeeded his father (who was killed by U.S. forces in 2011) as the head of what remains of al Qaeda.

Hamza was at his father's side in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. He also spent time with his father in Pakistan after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan pushed much of al Qaeda's senior leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution.

The U.S. State Department designated Hamza a global terrorist in 2017 after he called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and threatened to take revenge against the United States for killing his father.

According to Reuters, it was unclear why the White House decided to publicize information about Hamza's death months after he was killed.