Donald Trump confirms death of al-Qaida heir Hamza bin Laden
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in a counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
Citing intelligence officials, US media reported more than a month ago that the younger bin Laden had been killed sometime in the past two years in an operation that involved the United States.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said last month that it was "his understanding" that Hamza bin Laden, who was thought to be about 30, was dead.
But Trump had not publicly confirmed the news until Saturday - three days after the 18th anniversary of al-Qaida's 9/11 terror attacks in the US and a week after Trump's surprise announcement that a planned secret meeting with Taliban leaders at the Camp David presidential retreat had fallen through.
"Hamza bin Laden, the high-ranking al-Qaida member and son of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a US counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region," Trump said in a brief statement issued by the White House.
"The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group."
The statement did not specify the timing of the operation, how the long-rumored death had been confirmed, or even specifically in which country it occurred.
Hamza, the 15th of Osama bin Laden's 20 children and a son of his third wife, was "emerging as a leader in the al-Qaida franchise", the US State Department said in announcing a $1 million bounty on his head in February 2019.
It said Hamza was married to a daughter of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a senior al-Qaida leader indicted by a US federal grand jury in 1998 for his role in the bombings that year of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Hamza had issued calls for attacks on the US and other countries, especially to avenge his father's killing by US forces in Pakistan in May 2011, the department said.
That work helped him attract a new generation of followers to the extremist group that carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Colin Clarke, an analyst with the Rand Corporation and the Soufan Center think tanks, said he was still skeptical the younger bin Laden had a major role "operationally". "But obviously he's got the DNA - the bin Laden name," he said.
The al-Qaida organization has yet to confirm the US announcement.
Agence France - presse
(China Daily 09/16/2019 page12)
