Hamza Bin Laden was prepared for terror by al-Qaeda by his father Osama as he struggled to protect his deadly legacy, new letters reveal

In the years before his death, Osama Bin Laden spent his days behind the walls of his residence in Pakistan, fearing that his son would live thousands of miles away.

He wrote letter after letter, describing the curriculum that was to be studied by his son, Hamza bin Laden, then 23, the qualities he should cultivate and the safety measures that he should follow.

In one of them, he advised his son, who was only 13 years old when he last saw his father, not to leave his home.

In another, he asked if the young man could join him in Pakistan, advising him to travel in cloudy weather, because it would be more difficult for a drone to follow him.

He developed a complicated security protocol, calling the son to change cars in a tunnel to deceive aerial surveillance.

The care he lavished was not solely those of a father for a son. It seems that the most hunted terrorist in the world has tried to preserve his legacy.

Analysts believe that since at least 2010, al Qaeda secretly prepared Hamza bin Laden to take control of the organization, which seems to have been foiled.

According to three US officials, the young bin Laden was reportedly killed during the first two years of the Trump administration, but many questions remain, especially when, where and how he was killed and by whom.

If confirmed, his death represents another blow to al-Qaeda, whose ranks were dug by the incessant attacks of the Americans and the rise of Isis.

The former terrorist network has struggled to appeal to a new generation of recruits, attracted by Isis by pretty videos shot on UAVs and GoPros while al-Qaeda was still giving lectures from a few years ago. time to aging leaders who were staring at their camcorders.

The young bin Laden was supposed to solve many of al-Qaeda's most pressing management problems: no more than 30 years old, he was almost four decades younger than Ayman al-Zawahri, the current one. leader of the group, vilified by Isis as an old fashioned and out of touch manager.

Because it bears the most famous name for terrorism, young bin Laden can tap into the devotion that jihadists around the world continue to feel for his father.

For these reasons, al-Qaeda hoped Hamza bin Laden could act as a unifying force, calling not only the base of the group, but also the recruits lost to Isis, many of whom are at the crossroads after the loss of Isis territory in Iraq. and Syria.

"It is true that he died, so al-Qaeda lost his future because Hamza was the future of al-Qaeda," said Ali Soufan, former agent of the government. FBI and counterterrorism expert, who issued a cautionary note al-Qaeda not to announce such a death.

"He was ready to lead the organization, and it is clear from his statements that his goal was to bring back his father's message," said Mr. Soufan, author of Hamza bin Laden's profile calling him "al-Qaeda." leader waiting ".

The US government played a role in the operation to kill him, US officials said, but they refused to provide additional information. When asked about the operation on Wednesday, Donald Trump, the US president, did not comment.

With regard to the location of Bin Laden, there has been only vague information pointing to possible observations.

"Our information showed us that there was a Hamza here, but we did not really know it," said Mohammad Ismail, governor of Want Waigal, a mountainous district in eastern Uganda. Afghanistan located near the Pakistan border. "Some would say that he was Pakistani and others, he was Arab".

The letters addressed to and from his father – found by the Navy Seal team that killed former bin Laden and then declbadified – indicate that he was living in Iran in 2009 and 2010.

An Iranian official said on Wednesday that he thought Hamza Bin Laden was living in an upscale villa in Tehran with two women and a sister. Another official said that he came and went but that he has never lived in Iran.

Hamza bin Laden was only 13 years old when his father took him and his brothers to the foot of a mountain in Afghanistan, where he bid farewell for the last time. It was in 2001 and aircraft driven by agents had just crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and another hijacked plane had been thwarted en route to Washington.

The terrorist leader knew that the reprisals were not far behind and arranged for the return of his boys. He handed them a set of Muslim prayer beads, reminding them to seek strength in their faith.

"You said goodbye and we left, and it was as if we had removed our livers and left them there," Hamza bin Laden wrote in a letter to "my beloved father" of years later.

Gifts identical to her sons suggest that senior bin Laden wanted to be equal in his affection. But family chroniclers say that it was not long before he realized that he had special relations with Hamza, the only son of Khairia Sabar, a highly educated Saudi woman who became the first Favorite wife of Osama bin Laden.

When Hamza was two years old, his father left Afghanistan for Sudan. He was there until the age of seven, when the Sudanese government yielded to international pressure and expelled the family.

Osama bin Laden and his followers returned to Afghanistan where they sought refuge with the Taliban and lived in a complex of concrete huts, devoid of plumbing, electricity and even gates.

After the 2001 attacks, Hazma Bin Laden was taken to Pakistan by the mountains, before seeking refuge in Iran, where he first lived in a shelter, according to Mr. Soufan. He and his mother were eventually arrested by the Iranian authorities and detained in a military camp.

As Hamza bin Laden grew older, he did not ask for any special treatment within the group as the son of Osama bin Laden.

"He does not want to be treated with favoritism because he is the son of" someone ", according to a 2010 letter from an elder bin Laden's aide. "I promised him to plan a safe training for him: shoot with weapons and with various weapons."

Hamza bin Laden married the daughter of a senior al Qaeda leader, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a marriage recorded on a video found in the compound of Abbottabad.

Thomas Joscelyn, a senior member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and al-Qaeda student for years, said the role of young bin Laden in the organization was opaque.

"We do not really know what his real role was in al-Qaeda," he said. "We know that Al Qaeda marketed it as the voice of a younger generation. You could see it when they would send these audio messages from him. "

Mr. Joscelyn cited evidence from former bin Laden's personal files that Hamza had already received elite training, but that Osama bin Laden preferred his son to not play a military role.

Bin Laden's ambitions, based on his audio recordings and letters to his father, reflected his desire to play an active role in al-Qaida.

"My beloved father, I was separated from you when I was little, I was not yet thirteen, but I am older now and I have reached the 39, adulthood, "he wrote in a 2009 letter.

"But what makes me really sad," he added, "it was the mujahideen legions that marched and I did not join them."

In 2017, the United States has officially clbadified it as a global terrorist. In a letter published by al-Qaeda the same year, Hamza Bin Laden said his 12-year-old son was killed, according to the SITE intelligence group. The circumstances were not clear.

Three Iraqi intelligence officials said there was no attempt to badbadinate Hamza bin Laden that year.

In February, the State Department announced a reward of $ 1 million for information on where he was and Saudi Arabia revoked his citizenship. According to US authorities, he was already dead by that date.

New York Times