Trump Confirms Killing of Osama Bin Laden’s Son Hamza, Putting Spotlight on Pakistan

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that Hamza bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s son, had been killed in a counterterrorism operation in the “Afghanistan/Pakistan” region, turning the terrorism spotlight again on Pakistan, where some of the world’s most prominent terrorists have been killed or captured over the past two decades.

“Hamza bin Ladin, the high-ranking al-Qa’ida member and son of Usama bin Ladin, was killed in a United States counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region. The loss of Hamza bin Ladin not only deprives al-Qa’ida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group. Hamza bin Ladin was responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups,” the White House said in a statement from the President.

The younger bin Laden’s death, purportedly in special operation several months ago, had been reported intermittently in the last couple of weeks through intelligence leaks. It was not clear why the White House chose this moment to confirm it and why there wasn’t more precision about the location of the operation.
“Confirmation by @POTUS of Hamza bin Laden’s death but still ambiguity about where he was killed. U.S knows where. Why say ‘somewhere in Afghanistan-Pakistan region’ instead of specifying location unless purpose is to save someone from embarrassment?” asked Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and a trenchant critic of the Pakistani military establishment’s policy of using terror groups.
Several prominent terrorists involved in major terrorist attacks in the world have been captured or killed in Pakistan, a fertile breeding ground for terrorism and state-funded terror groups. They include Osama bin Laden (killed in Pakistan’s military cantonment Abbottabad), Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (captured in Rawalpindi), Abu Zubaidah (captured in Faisalabad), and Ramzi bin al Shibh (captured in Karachi), among others. Ayman Al Zawahiri, who recently issued a statement on the anniversary of 9/11, is also believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
The man who was once accused by his own peers of hiding Osama bin Laden in a safehouse in Pakistan, former Director General of Militiary Intelligence Brig Ijaz Shah, is currently the interior minister in the Imran Khan government.

Hamza, who was believed to be around 30, was said to be Osama bin Laden’s favorite son from his third wife, the 15th child in a brood of 30. Documents recovered during the Navy Seals raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, indicated that he was being groomed to succeed Osama bin Laden.
While the White House statement did not go into precise details of how he was eliminated, accounts that first surfaced on social media claimed Hamza was being escorted in a Pakistan Army Aviation flight from Islamabad Airport when the plane nosedived in a residential area near the Pakistani Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Reports at that time said US personnel collaborated with Afghans and brought down the plan knowing it carried Hamza bin Laden.