Published 06:24 IST, August 1st 2019
Osama Bin Laden son dead; official confirmation by White House awaited : Reports
As per reports by US media, Hazma Bin Laden, son of slain terrorist Osama Bin laden is dead. Hazma whose age is speculated as 30, had released several videos threatening attacks on US and other countries.
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As per reports by US media, Hazma Bin Laden, son of slain terrorist Osama Bin laden is dead. Hazma whose age is speculated as 30, had released several videos threatening attacks on US and other countries. The United States on February this year had announced one million for information on his whereabouts. The State Department had identified him as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" in January 2017. The reports also said that US President Donald Trump refused to comment on the issue. "I don't want to comment on that," Trump said to media. White House security advisor John Bolton did not respond either.
Back in 2011, Hazma had urged jihadists to unite in order to take revenge of his father the notorious terrorist Osama Bin Laden's killing. The intelligence agencies have not been able to trace him, though his location in the past has been found to be Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. Some sources also say that he is under house arrest in Iran after the Saudi Arabian regime stripped his citizenship. Hamza bin Laden is believed to have made his last public appearance in 2018. He was regarded as the likely successor to the organization's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Osama Bin Laden's killing:
Osama bin Laden was killed on 2 May 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during a US Navy SEAL special operation following a 10-year manhunt. Recently, Pakistan PM Imran Khan on his visit to United States, for the first time revealed that the ISI provided intelligence to the CIA which helped the US track down and kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. This comes as a significant development as Islamabad had so far denied having any knowledge of the dreaded al-Qaeda chief in the country. He was shot dead by US Navy Seals in 2011.
Imran Khan's statement is significant because Pakistan had so far denied that it had any information about the hideout of Osama before he was killed in a covert raid by US special forces. "It was the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that gave the information which led to the location of Osama bin Laden. If you ask the CIA it was the ISI which gave the initial location through the phone connection," Khan said.
Al-Qaeda - founded by Osama Bin Laden
AL Qaeda is known for beheading and filming the incidents, their first being the beheading of Nick Berg, an American in Iraq who was abducted and beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants in response to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse involving the United States Army and Iraqi prisoners. The video of man in orange jacket being beheaded was widely spread and along with it the arrival of the brutal and horrendous IS was announced. The group call for jihadists to take part in what they call as 'holy war'. The group emerged after the Arab volunteers of the Afghanistan war waged a war against US. Interestingly, these Arab volunteers were part of Afghan Mujhahideen backed by the United States to expel the Soviets out of Afghanistan. After the killing of Bin laden, though it was believed that without the leadership the group has been dismantled, they have been rising and trying to consolidate, as per some intelligence reports. The latest intelligence report by the US warns that senior al-Qaeda leaders are "strengthening the network's global command structure and continuing to encourage attacks against the West and the United States."
Updated 07:02 IST, August 1st 2019