Hamza bin Laden allegedly faked 2019 death and is plotting attacks on the West

According to a recently released intelligence assessment, Hamza bin Laden, aged 37, faked his death in a 2019 CIA-backed airstrike by coordinating with al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network, a powerful Afghan mafia group. The deception involved manipulated telephone reports that convinced U.S. agencies of his demise. Since then, Hamza is said to have quietly assembled a trans-regional cadre of killers in Asia and Africa and to have been appointed al-Qaeda’s emir in November 2022 at a gathering in Kandahar attended by the Taliban, Haqqani Network, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and representatives from Africa and Syria.

The assessment warns that his network could launch mass-casualty attacks, sabotage, kidnappings and targeted killings against the United Kingdom, the United States and other allies, leveraging ties to the Iranian military, Hamas, the Islamic State and other groups. It also notes the use of former British military sites in Helmand as training grounds. The document concludes that al-Qaeda should no longer be viewed as a defeated legacy organization and that Western nations must treat the renewed threat seriously.