The US has put up a $1 million reward for help tracking down the son of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, who replaced his father as the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network.
A State Department notice issued Thursday said the reward would be paid for help locating Hamza bin Laden in any country as part of its “rewards for justice” program.
State said bin Laden’s son — who is married to a daughter of lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and has three kids, including a son named Osama — took over after his father was killed in a daring Navy SEALS raid in Pakistan in May 2011.
Hamza bin Laden was named a “specially designated global terrorist” in January 2017.
The couple’s whereabouts remain unknown, but some reports say they live in Iran.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has stripped citizenship from Hamza bin Laden, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Hamza, believed to be about 30, was at his father’s side in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks and spent time with him in Pakistan after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan pushed much of al Qaeda’s top leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution.
Introduced by the organization’s new chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message in 2015, Hamza provides a younger voice for the group whose aging leaders have struggled to inspire militants around the world galvanized by ISIS, analysts say.
He has called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and threatened to take revenge against the US for his father’s killing, the State Department said in 2017 when it designated him as a global terrorist.
He also threatened to target Americans abroad and urged Saudi tribes to unite with Yemen’s Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to fight against Saudi Arabia, it said.
With Wires



