Bin Laden’s Son Urges Saudis to Train with Al Qaeda to Overthrow Kingdom

Al-Jazeera/AFP/File
Al-Jazeera/AFP/File
Edwin Mora
Washington, D.C.

Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al Qaeda leader, has urged young Saudis in a new audio message to train with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to “gain the necessary experience” to overthrow Saudi Arabia’s kingdom, a U.S. ally, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadi activity online.

The message comes as a Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States, is combating AQAP and other jihadi groups in Yemen.

“Echoing his father Usama’s call to overthrow the Saudi regime, Hamza bin Laden incited Saudis to act and end American influence in the country, and to seek military training with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen,” reports SITE.

Hamza’s audio message was published on Wednesday by As-Sahab, an al Qaeda-linked media outlet, reports Khaama Press (KP).

He urged young Saudis to join AQAP to “gain the necessary experience” in waging “intifada” to free Saudi Arabia from the ruling royal Al-Saud family, reveals the SITE Intelligence Group.

Osama bin Laden’s young son, believed to be in his early 20s, has emerged as the next top al Qaeda leader.

Dubbed the “the Crown Prince of Terror” by British media, Hamza has recently called on jihadists to attack the United States and its allies.

In an audio message that surfaced in July, Hamza vowed that al Qaeda will take revenge against the United States for executing his father, the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the U.S. homeland.

KP notes:

Yemen is the ancestral home of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan in 2011 by an elite team of US Navy Seals after a decade on the run.

The audio message released on Wednesday was his fourth speech since August 2015, as he tries to assert his influence over the global terrorist network.

While Al-Qaeda has been headed by Ayman Al Zawahiri since 2011, experts believe that Hamza is aiming for the top terrorist position.

Until this year, the Saudi-led Sunni coalition in Yemen had been primarily focusing on Iran-allied Shiite rebels known as Houthis since March 2015, while largely ignoring jihadists, namely members of AQAP and ISIS.

As a result both Sunni terrorist groups have grown, with AQAP emerging as the strongest jihadi organization in Yemen.

According to the U.S. State Department, AQAP has expanded its reach in Yemen to unprecedented levels and quadrupled its manpower from “approximately 1,000 members” in 2014 to “4,000” last year.

The Saudi-led coalition this year began to attack AQAP and ISIS in Yemen.

Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, told lawmakers in June that Syria’s Jabhat al Nusra, had become the “largest” al Qaeda affiliate “in history.”

His comments came after U.S. military officials had conceded that by largely ignoring al Nusra and focusing on ISIS, the coalition helped the Syrian group gain strength and become more potent.

That is what happened in Yemen when the Saudi-led coalition ignored AQAP.

Al Nusra recently decided to sever its ties with al Qaeda, which means AQAP likely regained its title as the terror group’s largest affiliate.

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