U.S. Offers $1 Million for Info leads to Hamza bin Laden
The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of
$1 million for information leading to the location of Hamza bin Laden, the son
of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
The government says Hamza bin Laden "is
emerging as a leader" of al-Qaida, posting videos on the Internet calling
for attacks on the U.S. and its western allies. He is particularly interested
in exacting "revenge" against the U.S. for its 2011 killing of his
father, the State Department says.
The U.S. added the young bin Laden to its terror
blacklist in 2017 and froze his assets in the U.S., finding that he was "actively
engaged in terrorism."
According to the State Department, Hamza bin Laden
is in his early thirties and married to the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead
hijacker in the Sept. 11 terror attacks against the World Trade Center. Letters
seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, "indicate
that he was grooming Hamza to replace him as leader of al-Qa'ida," the
State Department said.
"He could be anywhere," said Michael
Evanoff, an assistant secretary for diplomatic security at the State
Department, according to USA Today. Evanoff said Hamza bin Laden is likely
hiding somewhere around the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
On Thursday, the United Nations Security Counsel
added Hamza bin Laden to its sanctions list. That means he's subject to an
assets freeze and travel ban. Hamza "has called for followers of Al-Qaida
to commit terror attacks" and "is seen as the most probable successor
of [Ayman] al-Zawahiri," the U.N. said. Al-Zawahiri became the leader of
al-Qaida after the death of Osama bin Laden.
