WASHINGTON: The White House has confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaeda leader and an increasingly prominent figure in the terrorist organisation, has been killed in a US counterterrorism operation.
A White House statement released on Saturday said the operation took place in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. It did not say when the death occurred.
“The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives al-Qaeda of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group,” the statement said.
Hamza, believed to be about 30 years old, was at his father’s side in Afghanistan before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. He also spent time with his father in Pakistan after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan pushed much of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution.
US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
The US State Department designated Hamza a global terrorist in 2017 after he called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and threatened to take revenge against the United States for killing his father.
Reuters reported on July 31 that Hamza had been killed, citing a US official with knowledge of the matter. Defence Secretary Mark Esper confirmed the death last month, saying it was “his understanding” that bin Laden was dead, but President Donald Trump and other senior officials had not publicly confirmed the news.
The White House statement released on Saturday gave no further details, such as when Hamza bin Laden was killed or how US officials confirmed his death.
The 15th of Osama bin Laden’s 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza was believed to have been born in 1989. He was “emerging as a leader in the Al-Qaeda franchise”, the State Department said in announcing a $1-million bounty on his head in February 2019 — perhaps after his actual demise.