Asset freeze: US puts Osama bin Laden’s son on terror blacklist

Hamza bin Laden has become active as al Qaeda propagandist.

WASHINGTON: The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist on Thursday.

Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an al Qaeda propagandist since his father’s death at the hands of US special forces on May 2, 2011. According to letters found in the Navy SEAL raid on Osama’s hideout, Hamza wrote to the al Qaeda leader asking to be trained to follow him.



A CIA analyst who examined the letters told AFP that, in July 2009, when Hamza wrote to his father’s Abbottabad hideout, they had not seen each other for eight years. But the elder bin Laden was making plans to send for his son, who was at the time under house arrest in Iran, and planned to groom him to become al Qaeda’s leader. The State Department order names Hamza bin Laden as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ and freezes any assets he may hold in areas under US jurisdiction. The department also designated Ibrahim al Banna, whom it described as a senior leader in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).



In an undated audio message released in August, Hamza bin Laden urged his Saudi supporters to rebel and overthrow the kingdom’s rulers.



Earlier, in a message released in May, he urged the jihadist factions fighting in Syria to unite. He had previously issued a call for Muslims living in the West to rise up and conduct spontaneous attacks.

“In 2015, bin Laden called for lone offender attacks against US, French and Israeli interests in Washington, DC; Paris, France; and Tel Aviv, Israel,” the State Department said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2017.