Hamza bin Laden: Who is the terrorist with a $1m bounty on his head?

Hamza bin Laden appears to be following in his father’s footsteps.

The son of 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, has risen to prominence in al Qaeda and is now considered enough of a threat for the US to offer $1m (£755,000) to anyone who can help them locate him.

Here is what we know about the emerging leader of the terrorist group:

On 22 May 2017 a terrorist detonated a shrapnel-laden suicide vest at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and injuring many more.

Ten days before, Hamza bin Laden had issued a call to al Qaeda followers worldwide urging them to attack “Jews” and “crusaders”.

“Be perfect in your choice of targets, so that you may damage your enemies more,” he said in the 10-minute tape released in English and Arabic.

It was a sign that he wanted to inherit his father’s terror legacy and there is now a price on his head.

Hamza is believed to be the 15th of Bin Laden’s 56 children by 22 wives, but his date of birth is unclear.

He is the son of his father’s third wife Khairiah Sabar – by some accounts his favourite – a Saudi woman whose family traces its lineage to the prophet Muhammad.

US officials estimate he is aged between 30 and 33, but others put him in his late 20s.

His whereabouts is also unknown, but he is thought to be hiding out either in Afghanistan or across the border in restive western Pakistan.

Hamza spent his early childhood with his parents in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Afghanistan where his father was based between 1991 and 2002 and, as a boy and teenager, featured in al Qaeda propaganda videos.

Letters captured in raids, such as that which assassinated bin Laden senior in 2011, have revealed that he had a close relationship with his father.

The US State Department said items seized from his bolt-hole in Abbottabad in Pakistan indicated he was grooming Hamza to replace him as the leader of the terror group.

The terror leader’s favouritism may have saved Hamza’s life as, when US Navy Seals stormed the compound, he was not staying there on the orders of his father, according to US and Pakistani counter-terrorism officials.

But while no formal decision about a successor had been made, the deaths of other sons, Khaled (in the raid) and Saad (by drone strike in 2009) helped clear the path for Hamza to take over.

Letters written to aides shortly before his death indicate the patriarch was beginning to see his son as a future al Qaeda leader.

“Hamza is one of the mujahideen, and he bears their thoughts and worries,” Osama bin Laden wrote in one.

Hamza is married to the daughter of 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta and the couple have three children, a son called Osama, a daughter Khairiah and one other. Their whereabouts are also unknown, but some reports say they are in Iran.

Video of his wedding, seized in the 2011 raid, was released by the US.

Several years later, Hamza began releasing online calls for jihad against the US and its western allies.

Source: Sky News