The United States has reportedly obtained intelligence that the son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Hamza bin Laden, is dead.
NBC reports that officials would not provide details of where or when Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role in his death.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether the U.S. had information that Hamza is dead, President Donald Trump said, “I don’t want to comment on that.”
Hamza bin Laden’s last known public statement was released by al Qaeda’s media arm in 2018. He threatened Saudi Arabia and called on the people of the Arabian peninsula to revolt.
Hamza bin Laden is believed to have been born around 1989 had a $1million reward for information on him.
Navy SEALS killed his father in 2011 during a raid on his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound. Hamza was not found at the compound.
Letters seized from the compound suggested the elder bin Laden wanted his son to join him in Abbottabad and was grooming him as a leader.
In a September 2017 article, counterterror expert and former FBI agent Ali Soufan said, “Hamza is being prepared for a leadership role in the organization his father founded” and is “likely to be perceived favorably by the jihadi rank-and-file.
“With the Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ apparently on the verge of collapse, Hamza is now the figure best placed to reunify the global jihadi movement.”
