White House: Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza killed in US anti terrorism operation

New Delhi: US President Donal Trump has confirmed the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden on Saturday in a statement. However, he did not say anything about the time period of operation or death.  Hamza was supposedly killed in July this year after reports of his death based on some intelligence officials appeared in media. However, Trump’s office neither confirmed or denied the reports at that time.

This confirmation of Hamza’s death came just three days after the anniversary of 9/11, an event which will be remembered as one of the most horrific incidents in the annals of history.

Hamza bin Laden, son of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was to assume leadership of this terrorist organization after his father was killed in a counter-terrorism operation in 2011 to take the revenge of 9/11 incidents, which took lives of about 3000 innocent people. Documents found in his father’s house in Abottabad, Pakistan, where his father was terminated by US forces in a covert operation, indicated Hamza being trained for the leadership of the al Qaeda. His association with al Qaeda was also confirmed by his marriage video in which he was being wedded to the daughter of another senior al-Qaeda official.

Hamza’s whereabouts could never be ascertained but according to reports, he might have been holed up in Iran after he was stripped of his Citizenship by Saudi Arabia’ royal order in November 2018.

Al-Qaeda is a proscribed Islamic terrorist organization, which was founded by and now dead Osama bin Laden in 1988. Osama bin Laden rose to prominence after his crucial involvement in the fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, where he sided and supported Mujahideen by siphoning arms, money, and fighters from Saudi Arabia. When he gained popularity among Arabs, he founded al Qaeda but his involvement in terrorism led to his stripping off his Saudi Arabia’s Citizenship in 1994. Previously, Saudi Arabia banished him 1992, which led him to shift his base to Sudan but under US pressure he was ousted even from here too and it provoked him to declare war against the US, resulting in series of bombings at various places

including 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. But, after 9/11 attacks, the US launched international manhunt, which forced him to hole up in Pakistan’s Abottabad. Here, he was finally shot and killed on 2 May 2011 in US President Barack Obama sanctioned covert operation.

Al-Qaeda as an organization was already weakened after the death of Osama bin Laden and faded into insignificance after the rise of even more notorious ISIS- another terrorist outfit. But the death of Hamza bin Laden- who could have resurrected the dying organization- may wither away even its last hope of resurgence.