Osama bin Laden's son Hamza, who the terror leader was reportedly grooming as his successor before American forces killed him in 2011, has released a message calling for attacks on western cities, specifying London, Washington, Paris, and Tel Aviv as targets for action, including lone wolf lone wolf attacks in the United States and attacking Jewish-American interests globally.
Jihadists shared the audio message on Twitter, reports
The Telegraph, and it is believed to be the first one sent out by bin Laden's son, who is about 24. Before now, he had not officially been an al-Qaida spokesman, but insiders have been pushing him as the terror network's future leader, and he was eager to join the fight.
According to
letters found at Osama bin Laden's compound after his death, Hamza wrote to his father saying he was ready to join the fight.
He had trained with explosives and embraced the terror network, the letters said.
U.S. intelligence officials say Hamza was bin Laden's favorite son, and documents that have been declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency include two letters from Hamza to his father and one from Hamza's mother, begging that he be able to "follow in his father's footsteps."
Hamza is believed to have engaged in terror raids as a teenager, including attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan as far back as 2005, as well as in propaganda films while he was younger.
Since 2011, al-Qaida has been led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, a close associate of bin Laden's, but in the Twitter message, the man al-Qaida identifies as Hamza calls for jihad against America and its allies.
Hamza was initially reported as being killed in the 2011 raid on the bin Laden compound in Pakistan, but instead, another son, Khaled, was the one that was killed, as Hamza was able to escape.
Rita Katz, director of SITE intelligence group, analyzed the recording in a series of tweets, saying that Hamza bin Laden "lived the life of jihad with his father throughout AQ's creation in Afghanistan."
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Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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