The son of Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against
the US for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted
online by Al-Qaeda. Hamza bin Laden promised to continue the global militant
group's fight against the United States and its allies in the 21-minute speech
entitled "We Are All Osama," according to the SITE Intelligence
Group, an organisation that tracks white supremacist and jihadi organisations
online.
"We will continue striking you and targeting you in
your country and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of
Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Muslim
lands that did not survive your oppression," Hamza said. "As for the
revenge by the Islamic nation for Sheikh Osama, may Allah have mercy on him, it
is not revenge for Osama the person but it is revenge for those who defended
Islam."
Osama bin Laden was killed at his Pakistani hideout by US
commandos in 2011 in a major blow to the militant group which carried out the
September 11 attacks.
Documents recovered from bin Laden's compound and published
by the United States last year alleged that his aides tried to reunite the
militant leader with Hamza, who had been held under house arrest in Iran. Hamza,
now in his mid-twenties, was at his father's side in Afghanistan before the
9/11 attacks and spent time with him in Pakistan after the US-led invasion
pushed much of Al-Qaeda's senior leadership there, according to the think tank
Brookings Institution.
Introduced by the organisation's new chief Ayman al-Zawahiri
in an audio message last year, Hamza provides a younger voice for the group
whose ageing leaders have struggled to inspire militants around the world
galvanised by Isis. "Hamza provides a new face for Al-Qaeda, one that
directly connects to the group's founder. He is an articulate and dangerous
enemy," according to Bruce Riedel of Brookings Institution.
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