The U.S. is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information about the son of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
Hamza Bin Laden, who is believed to be about 30 years old, is emerging as a key leader of the Islamist militant group, the State Department announced on Thursday. In recent years, he has released audio and video messages calling on followers to attack the U.S. and its Western allies in revenge for his father's killing in 2011.
"We do believe he"s probably in the Afghan-Pakistan border, and probably could go into Iran... But he could be anywhere," Michael Evanoff, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, said at the Washington Foreign Press Center, while laying out the new international efforts aimed at weakening al-Qaida leadership, TURAN's correspondent reports.
"Today"s al-Qaida is not stagnant. It"s rebuilding... And it continues to threaten the United States and our allies," added Ambassador-at-Large Nathan Sales, U.S. coordinator for counter terrorism: "In recent years, the world"s attention understandably has been focused on the ISIS threat. Al-Qaida, during this period, has been relatively quiet, but that is a strategic pause, not a surrender. Make no mistake, al-Qaida retains both the capability and the intent to hit us. "
The move comes at a time when many jihadists are expected to return to Europe and other regions, as the U.S. ends its military presence in Syria.
In response to TURAN's question whether policymakers differ risks posed from the potential ISIS jihadists abroad, and Al Qaeda itself, and how U.S. counterterrorism policy can be best positioned to address both threats, Sales said, "we adopt tools that are threat agnostic and that can used against the full spectrum of threats. The tools that we use to deny resources to al-Qaida can also be used to cut off the flow of money to ISIS. The tools that we use to prevent Hizballah operatives from traveling internationally can also be used to prevent ISIS foreign fighters from traveling internationally," he added.
Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.
Politics
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