US slaps terror-related curbs on Osama Bin Laden’s son

US slaps terror-related curbs on Osama Bin Laden’s son
Hamza in a Nov. 7, 2001 video grab. (AFP)
Updated 06 January 2017
Follow

US slaps terror-related curbs on Osama Bin Laden’s son

US slaps terror-related curbs on Osama Bin Laden’s son

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden, saying the younger Bin Laden poses a risk to US national security.
The State Department said Hamza Bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was “determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security.”
Hamza Bin Laden was officially named an Al-Qaeda member in 2014 by his father’s successor, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
The State Department says the younger Laden — in a 2015 audio message — called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the US and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad.
Hamza Bin Laden also has called for lone wolf, or solo-operative, attacks against US, French, and Israeli interests in Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv.
“Hamza Bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism,” the State Department said, adding that terrorism designations deny individuals access to the US financial system and “can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other US agencies and other governments.”
Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim Al-Banna, a senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He served as that group’s security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership.
Al-Banna wrote a 2010 article in AQAP’s English-language magazine, Inspire, hailing the Sept. 11 attacks as virtuous, according to the State Department, and threatened to target Americans both domestically and abroad.
Al-Zawahiri, an eye surgeon who helped found the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group, took over leadership of Al-Qaeda after Bin Laden’s death.
In August, Professor Fawaz Gerges, an expert on Middle East politics, told BBC Radio 4 that Hamza was “the new face of Al-Qaeda — he is charismatic, he is very popular with the rank and file.”
“He was his father’s favorite son — everyone, even for the last 10 years, has been talking about Hamza succeeding his father.”
In 2015, Hamza called on followers in Kabul, Baghdad and Gaza to wage or holy war on Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv.
He now joins his half-brother Saad on the US sanctions list as a “specially designated global terrorist” — someone who threatens national security or the safety of US citizens, according to BBC.
The US State Department said the sanction was a “powerful tool.”