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 The United States has received intelligence that Hamza bin Laden, the son and possible successor of the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is dead, according to reports. There were no details of how, or where, the reported death occurred, or whether the US had itself confirmed the information, NBC News reported. Asked whether Hamza bin Laden was dead, Donald Trump, the US president, said: "I don’t want to comment on it. I don’t want to comment on that." Three US officials confirmed the intelligence had been obtained, but gave no details of whether the US was involved in causing Hamza bin Laden's death, NBC News reported. The New York Times reported that the United States had a role in the operation that led to Hamza's death, which it said took place in the past two years. Five months ago the US state department announced a $1 million reward for information on his location, and described Hamza bin Laden, who is aged about 30, as an "emerging al-Qaeda leader." In a statement at the time the US government added: "He has released audio and video messages on the internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by US military forces." Osama bin Laden was shot dead by US Navy Seals in May 2011in a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Hamza bin Laden, who was not discovered at the compound, was thought to be under house arrest in Iran at the time, and documents recovered from the compound indicated that aides had been trying to reunite him with his father. He is believed to have been the 15th of Osama bin Laden's roughly 20 children. Hamza bin Laden spent his early childhood with his parents in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Afghanistan. Following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks he was sent to Iran. After his father's death he became known as the Crown Prince of Jihad, calling for jihadists to unite, and for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family. Introduced by al Qaeda's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message in 2015, Hamza provided a younger voice for the group whose aging leaders have struggled to inspire militants around the world galvanised by Islamic State, according to analysts. In one of the recordings he released after his father's death, Hamza bin Laden said: "If you think that the crime you perpetrated in Abbottabad has gone by with no reckoning, you are wrong." He reportedly married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11, 2001 hijackers. And Ayman al-Zawahiri, his father's successor as leader of al-Qaeda, described him as a "lion". Al-Qaeda was believed to be hoping to use his name as a propaganda tool as it sought a resurgence in the wake of the destruction of the caliphate of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. In March, Saudi Arabia announced it had stripped Hamza bin Laden of his citizenship, saying the decision was made by a royal order in November 2018.
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