While Islamic State has dominated the headlines as the “poster boy” of terrorism, al Qaeda’s leadership, command and control structures and methods of communication remain in place, often relatively intact.
America today offered a $1
million bounty to track down Osama bin Laden’s son amid escalating fears
that al Qaeda is plotting new
terror atrocities in the West.
Intelligence chiefs in the
US and Europe believe al Qaeda is rebuilding and is determined to carry out
more “spectacular” terrorist attacks.
Washington put up the $1
million (£750,000) reward for information on the whereabouts of Hamza bin
Laden, who is seen as an “emerging al Qaeda leader”.
“He has released audio and
video messages on the internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks
against the United States and its Western allies,” the US State Department
said.
“He has threatened attacks
against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by
US military forces.” When his father was shot dead in a raid by US Navy SEALs on a compound in
Pakistan, items seized indicated he was grooming Hamza to replace him as al
Qaeda leader, according to officials.
In 2008, while still
believed to be in his teens, Hamza was also alleged to be the author of a poem
featured on an extremist website to mark the third anniversary of the July 7
London Tube and bus bombings that killed 52
people.
The US, Britain and other
European nations have deployed significant
intelligence resources in the battle to destroy Islamic State but al
Qaeda is still firmly on the radar.
IS is currently assessed to
be the bigger threat, given its track record of inspiring attacks, despite being
geographically crushed in Syria, with a few hundred fighters making a last
stand in the eastern village of Baghuz.
But al Qaeda is still seen
as relatively strong in Afghanistan, as well as having a presence in Pakistan,
Yemen, South East Asia including the Philippines and Indonesia, and the Maghreb
region of north Africa, where special forces from several nations are targeting
Islamist extremists.
Its current leader Ayman
al-Zawahiri, believed to be 67, is an ageing figure compared to many younger IS
fanatics, but security chiefs still believe al Qaeda poses a danger to the West.
It tends to direct attacks
from overseas rather than inspire them and its main motivation remains to
target the West with “spectacular” attacks, according to sources. Hamza bin
Laden, now believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s, was named by America as
a “specially designated global
terrorist” in January 2017. Some reports suggested he is hiding near the
Afghanistan/ Pakistan border.
The State Department, in
its bounty offer, encouraged anyone with information on his whereabouts to
come forward. “Relocation possible.
Submit a tip, get paid,” its post added.
United Nations members were
urged yesterday by the State Department’s counter-terrorism coordinator Nathan
A Sales to freeze Hamza’s assets, comply with a travel ban, and enforce an arms
embargo barring the sale or transfer of weapons. Hamza has posted messages
online calling for revenge attacks on the West in retaliation for the death of
his father.
The youngest of the
Saudi-born terror chief’s 18 sons, he is reportedly married to the daughter of
Mohammed Atta, one of the al Qaeda hijackers who crashed a plane into the World
Trade Centre in the attacks on September 11, 2001, that claimed the lives of
nearly 3,000 people. He is believed
to be the son of Khairiah Sabar, one of
his father’s three surviving wives, who was living with bin Laden when he was shot and killed by the US special
forces, along with another of his sons,
Khalid.
Hamza is thought to have
lived for many years in Iran, where members of the Bin Laden family were
offered the protection of military and intelligence officials. He is understood
to have crossed into Syria at some point and made his way to the remote and
lawless tribal territories between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He appeared in a video at a
brother’s wedding in early 2001 when he was a young boy reading out a diatribe
against the US, saying “I am warning America that its people will face terrible
consequences if they chase my father. Fighting Americans is the basis of
faith.”
In 2005, he was also
reportedly seen taking part in an al Qaeda attack on Pakistani forces and he is
said to have urged the “destruction” of America, Britain, France and Denmark
and said: “Grant victory to the Taliban over the gangs of infidels.”
Another of
his brothers, Saad, was killed in
2009 in a drone strike in Afghanistan.
One of his half-brothers,
Hassan al-Attas, said last year that Hamza had told him: “I am going to avenge
my father.”
Evening Standard
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