Osama bin Laden's son Hamza asks jihadists to attack US, allies

Washington, Aug 16: Osama bin Laden's son Hamza, known as the 'Crown Prince of Terror', has asked al-Qaeda supporters to carry out lone wolf attacks in the US and in countries that are its allies.

The slain al-Qaeda chief's son, in his mid 20s, told Al Qaeda supporters to carry out lone wolf attacks in Washington, DC, Paris and Tel-Aviv in a video message.

"This is your duty," Hamza bin Laden said as he called to move the jihadist war from the Middle East to allies of the US and Jewish Americans, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

Al-Qaeda hopes to renew its popularity by "reviving the brand" of Bin Laden, SITE's Executive Director Rita Katz said.

The extremist group's "leadership wants Hamza as a future leader: someone loved & inspirational, without a negative reputation or participation in infighting," she tweeted.

Photos released shortly after 9/11 show Hamza reading poems to adult militants. He escaped the US Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama in his Pakistan compound in 2011.

The baby-faced terrorist likely made the video before June because he pledges to the Taliban's now-deceased leader Mullah Omar, the New York Daily News reported.

Interestingly, Hamza bin Laden makes no mention of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which is attracting Islamist extremists from around the world and has created a 'caliphate' in Syria and Iraq.

"Though Hamza bin Laden mentioned Jihadi fronts and leaders from around the world, no mention of ISIS and its leaders," Katz said.

Last week, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri had pledged allegiance to the new head of the Taliban -- Mullah Akhtar Mansour -- in an audio recording that surfaced Thursday.

Hamza bin Laden's aunt, uncle and his step-grandmother were killed in a plane crash in England earlier this month.

The bin Ladens in Saudi Arabia disowned Osama more than 20 years ago. The young bin Laden had also appeared on a sick extremist website to mark the third anniversary of the July 7, 2005, London bombings, in which 52 people died.

Hamza read a poem in which he called for the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark -- and terror chiefs fear he was being groomed as an al-Qaeda boss.

PTI