Know all about Hamza Bin Laden

Born to Osama bin Laden and Khairiah Sabar, one of the three surviving wives of the former Al-Qaeda leader, Hamza was seen as the heir to the terror outfit's leadership. On March 1, the US State Department has offered a reward of USD 1 million for information on the whereabouts of Hamza.

Hyderabad:US President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden and a high-ranking Al Qaeda member, was killed in a US counter-terrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Trump said that the high profile al-Qaeda member was killed during a counter-terrorism operation by the US. Know all about Osama's son Hamza Bin Laden-

Profile of Hamza bin Laden

• Hamza bin Laden, the high-ranking al-Qaeda member and son of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a United States counter terrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region."


• The 15th of Osama bin Laden's 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, thought to be about 30 years old, 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.


• In 2017, Hamza was placed on the US terror blacklist, seen as a potent future figurehead for the group then led by Ayman al-Zawahiri.


• It was reported in August that he had been killed in a military operation in the last two years and the US government was involved, but the exact date and time were unclear.


• Sometimes dubbed the "crown prince of jihad," he had put out audio and video messages calling for attacks on the United States and other countries, especially to avenge his father's killing by US forces in Pakistan in May 2011, the department said.


• That work made him important in attracting a new generation of followers to the extremist group that carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which left nearly 3,000 dead.

HOW IMPORTANT WAS HAMZA BIN LADEN

• He was widely seen as the emerging leader of al-Qaeda after his father was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

• In 2015, al-Qaeda's current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, introduced the 30-year-old Hamza as a "lion from the den" of the Bin Laden network.
• He had been promoted as a rising star on pro al-Qaeda websites, someone it was hoped would reinvigorate the group.

AL-QAEDA: THE BASICS

• Emerged in Afghanistan in the late 1980's, as Arab volunteers joined US-backed Afghan mujahideen fighting to expel the occupying Soviet forces.


• Osama Bin Laden set up an organisation to help the volunteers, which became known as al-Qaeda, or "the base".


• He left Afghanistan in 1989, returning in 1996 to run military training camps for thousands of foreign Muslims.

Al-Qaeda declared "holy war" on Americans, Jews and their allies.

WHAT'S HAPPENED TO AL-QAEDA AFTER OSAMA BIN LADEN DEATH

• With the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011 and the emergence of the Islamic State group (IS), al-Qaeda's power and influence weakened considerably.


• But in recent years, al-Qaeda has been pursuing a strategy of quietly rebuilding and forging alliances with regional groups.
  
• In a report in January, US National Intelligence warned that senior al-Qaeda leaders are "strengthening the network's global command structure and continuing to encourage attacks against the West and the United States."


• The UN, in a report published earlier this year on the threat of global terrorism, said that al-Qaeda "appears to be growing more ambitious…it remains resilient and active in many regions and retains the ambition to project itself more internationally."
  
• In February 2019 the UK's intelligence chief, Alex Young, also warned of a resurgence of al-Qaeda.
  

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WHERE IS AL-QAEDA ACTIVE

• Part of its new strategy has been to build local alliances, and foster a network of affiliates or "branches" in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

• Unlike IS, al-Qaeda has been careful not to alienate local populations.
  
• In 2013 al-Qaeda issued "General Guidelines for Jihad" which talked about a more restrained and community-based approach.
  
• "Al-Qaeda has made an art of homing in on local concerns, like corruption or marginalisation, and slotting them into its agenda of global jihad", according to Elisabeth Kendall, senior fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford.
  
• "In so doing, it acts a a local 'saviour' and positions itself as 'the good guys of jihad' as opposed to the brutal thugs of IS," she says.
  
• Al-Qaeda has been steadily increasing its attacks through its various branches and affiliates.
  
• In 2018, it carried out a total of 316 attacks around the world, according to data collected by The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
  
• Its last major attack in a Western country was the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in January 2015 in which 12 people died.The attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
  
• But its affiliates have been very active in other parts of the world, carrying out deadly attacks.
  
• The Somali-based group al-Shabab carried out an attack in 2013 against a shopping mall in Nairobi which killed at least 67 people.
  

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AL-QAEDA BRANCHES:

• Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)formed in 2006 when an Algeria-based group affiliated with al-Qaeda, and then moved into the Sahel and West Africa.


• Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)was formed in 2009 in a merger of two offshoots of the international Islamic militant network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
  
• Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, and was established in September 2014.
  
• Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM)is an al-Qaeda-affiliated organisation formed by the merger of several militant groups in Mali and West Africa.
  
• Al-Shababis active in Somalia and East Africa and swore allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012


• Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)is a merger of several Syrian militant groups which controls Idlib province in northern Syria. It insists it is independent, but the UN and the US both regard it as associated with al-Qaeda.
  
• Al-Qaeda in Egyptconsists of al-Qaeda-aligned groups operating in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and embedded in local communities.