Osama Bin Laden’s son killed in counter-terrorism strike

The son of former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed during a US counter-terrorism operation, Donald Trump has said.

Hamza bin Laden, who had been groomed by his dad to become his successor, was killed in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The White House said the son of the 9/11 mastermind had become an increasingly prominent figure in the terrorist organisation.

But they gave no further details on when Hamza bin Laden was killed or how the United States confirmed his death.

The statement said his death ‘not only deprives Al Qaeda of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operation activities of the group’.

Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals in a raid on his house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

In July US intelligence officials leaked news of the Saudi Arabian born terrorist’s death but they refused to offer further information on when or how he died.

This is the first time US involvement in the 30-year-old terror heir’s death has been confirmed.

A $1million reward for information leading to his capture was issued by the US State Department in February this year.

Hamza’s last known public statement was released by Al Qaeda’s public relations department in 2018.

In it, he issued a threat against Saudi Arabia and called on the people of the Arabian peninsula to revolt.

Hamza was born to Khairiah Sabar, one of Osama bin Laden’s three wives.

The terror heir married a daughter of high-ranking Al Qaeda operative Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah when he was 17.

He was dubbed the ‘Crown Prince of Terror’ in 2008 after a poem said to have been written by him was unearthed.

It said: ‘Accelerate the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark.’

In August 2015, he released an audio message which saw him call on followers to wage jihad (holy war) on Washington, Paris, London and Tel Aviv.

Hamza moved with his late father to Afghanistan in 1996, and appeared in propaganda videos after bin Laden Sr declared war on the United States.

The infamous terror mastermind became the world’s most wanted man after plotting the September 11 2001 attacks on New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania.

A total of 19 Al Qaeda terrorists killed 2,977 people after flying airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC and crashing a third jet into a field in Somerset County Pennsylvania.