Bin Laden Family: Son Has Gone to Afghanistan To 'Avenge' Father
Hamza bin Laden, the son of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, is seeking revenge for the death of his father, according to his family.
“We thought everyone was over this,” said Hassan bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers, in an interview with The Guardian, which reported that Hamza bin Laden is presumed to be in Afghanistan.
“Then the next thing I knew, Hamza was saying, ‘I am going to avenge my father.’ I don’t want to go through that again. If Hamza was in front of me now, I would tell him, ‘God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don’t retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul,’” Hassan bin Laden said.
Osama bin Laden — the al-Qaida leader who was the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America — was killed by U.S. forces during a 2011 raid on his compound in Pakistan.
During the interview with The Guardian, bin Laden’s mother, Alia Ghanem, said her son was a good man until he was “brainwashed” in college by Islamic radicals.
Hamza bin Laden has publicly taunted those he believes are his enemies, including the leaders of Saudi Arabia.
In January, he called for the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy on the grounds that the founder of the ruling dynasty collaborated with Western governments, Newsweek reported.
“From al-Qaida’s early years, it has been opposed to the Saudi monarchy, whose king is known as the ‘Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.’ This came to a head with Western troops being stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War,” said Harrison Akins, a security expert with the Howard Baker Center.
“Hamza bin Laden’s recent emergence as the new face of al-Qaida could come in the wake of the Islamic State’s defeats in Syria, and al-Qaida attempting to leverage this opportunity to re-establish their relevance in global politics using the notoriety around Osama bin Laden’s son for propagandistic purposes.”
In November, Hamza bin Laden called on Muslims to launch terror attacks on Americans to avenge his father,’ the Daily Mail reported.
He urged Muslims “to take revenge on the Americans, the murderers of the Shaykh (Osama bin Laden), specifically on those who participated in this heinous crime.”
In 2017, a video reached the West that showed Hamza bin Laden calling for attacks against the Jews, Americans and Westerners, according to CNN.
“If you are able to pick up a firearm, well and good; if not, the options are many,” he said.
Earlier in 2017, Hamza bin Laden was added to the Global Terrorist List, NPR reported.
“Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism,” the State Department said at the time.
It added that he was “determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security.”
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