A $1 million reward for information on a son of late Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was offered Thursday by the U.S. State Department.
The location of Hamza bin Laden has been the subject of speculation for years with reports of him living variously in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria or under house arrest in Iran.
He has never sought to reject the notions of global Islamic terror espoused by his father, and has long expressed a desire to take revenge against the United States, urging jihadists to attack at every opportunity.
“Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former AQ leader Osama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the AQ franchise,” a State Department statement said, referring to Al-Qaeda.
The State Department said that it would offer $1 million for information leading to his location in any country.
Letters from Osama bin Laden seized from his compound indicated that he had been grooming Hamza, thought to be his favourite son, to replace him as leader of al-Qaeda.
In 2017 he surfaced briefly in a 10-minute video which featured images of terror attacks around the world including several in Israel. The Saudi-born terrorist encouraged Muslims in “America, the West and occupied Palestine” to carry out solo attacks where they are instead of traveling to the Middle East.
“Know that inflicting punishment on Jews and crusaders where you are present is more vexing and severe for the enemy,” he says, according to the video, which was distributed by al-Qaeda media arm as-Sahab and posted to YouTube.
This was not the first time Hamza bin Laden tried to rally followers of his dead father. As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, the self-described “crown prince of jihad,” made a similar call in 2016.
On that occasion he praised the stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and called on Muslims from around the world to join the fight to defend Jerusalem, urging them to “participate in the intifada” of their Palestinian brethren by “killing the Jews and attacking their interests everywhere.”
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