Al-Qaida on Friday released an audio message that it claims was recorded by Hamza bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden's many sons.
In the message, believed to be the first time al-Qaida has presented Hamza bin Laden as an official member of the militant group, Hamza Bin Laden urges attacks on the US and its allies, namely Israel, France, and the United Kingdom.
The audio message, released and an al-Qaida website and shared by supporters on Twitter, calls upon followers in Kabul, Baghdad and Gaza to wage jihad, or holy war, on Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv.
Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 in a raid by US special forces on his compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan.
The group has since been led by al-Qaida's former second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Hamza, the son of one of the three wives that lived with bin Laden in Abbotabad, was the only person that was not found during the US raid. Letters found in the compound revealed that he was living at a safe house in Peshawar and being groomed as the future chief of al-Qaida
Hamza bin Laden's whereabouts or exact age are not, known but he is believed to be in his mid-twenties.
The last known video footage of Hamza showed him among Taliban fighters in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan in November 2001.
During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Al-Jazeera network broadcast footage that appeared to show him among Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
source : abna
