Osama Bin Laden’s son calls for ‘jihad’ against US and allies

Hamza Bin Laden

Hamza bin Laden, son of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has urged followers of the group to wage ‘jihad’ on US and its allies, according to a BBC report.

In an audio message released by al Qaeda website, which it claimed to be from Osama’s son, Hamza called upon followers in Kabul, Baghdad and Gaza to wage war on Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv.

This is the first time the militant group has presented Hamza as an official member of al Qaeda.

Hamza’s whereabouts are not known.

During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Al-Jazeera network broadcast footage that appeared to show him among Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Since Osama Bin Laden was killed in a raid on his compound in Abbotabad in 2011, Ayman al-Zawahiri has been leading the group.

According to documents confiscated from bin Ladens’ Abbottabad hideout by US forces, and released earlier this year, the al Qaeda supremo wanted to nurture Hamza as his successor in the group.

Hamza was due to travel to Abbottabad to join his father when US forces raided the hideout.

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Russian Security Forces Kill Alleged ISIS Militants

Russian Forces - Photo by Reuters

Russian authorities announced that its security forces had killed eight terrorists having affiliation with Islamic State (ISIS), after a firefight in the North Caucasus region, west of Chechnya, reported by AFP

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) made the announcement on Sunday evening after Russian forces ambushed the militants early on Sunday morning in the southern republic of Ingushetia.

"According to information available to the security services, the militants killed in the operation had recently pledged allegiance and became members of the Islamic State international terrorist organization. All of them were complicit in a number of crimes of a terrorist nature, including the killings of law enforcement officers and the extortion of money from entrepreneurs," the statement from the NAC said.

One of the men killed during the fight, Adam Tagilov, was said to be the leader of the group. Tagilov was suspected of being behind the December 4 terror attacks in the city of Grozny in Chechnya, according to the NAC.

ISIS declared its intention to expand its 'Caliphate' into the North Caucasus region of Russia in June, following a pledge of allegiance by the Caucasus Emirate, a large militant group based primarily in south-western Russia which was formally affiliated with al-Qaeda.

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Al-Qaeda women wing head arrested and senior commander Omar Lateef killed in Pakistan, told by minister

Photo by Dawn News

An important commander of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Omar Abdul Latif alias Luqman, was killed and her wife, women wing Head Tayyaba arrested in a raid by security forces in the Balochistan Province near the Pakistan-Afghan border.

According to details, Security forces have killed a senior Al-Qaeda commander and detained his wife in an overnight raid on his hideout in Balochistan province, provincial home minister said.

The security forces also took the couple's two young daughters into custody during the raid in the Chaghi district.

The minister said Umar Lateef, his wife Tayyaba, one brother and two daughters both aged under five had lived in Chaghi for the last 8-10 months after moving from the Afghan border province of Nimruz.

Punjab province had offered a reward of $20,000 for Lateef and $5,000 for his wife, who was head of Al-Qaeda's women's wing in south Punjab and Balochistan.

The home minister said that Omar Lateef was striving to establish the Al-Qaeda Subcontinent Centre in the area.

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14 Algerian soldiers killed by Al Qaeda Affliates

AP/File

NICOSIA: Al Qaeda's North African branch said it killed 14 Algerian soldiers in an ambush southwest of the Algerian capital, the deadliest attack on the army in over a year.

The El Khaber newspaper, citing security sources, reported earlier in the day that troops were killed by a terrorist group on the road to Tifran, a wooded area in the south of Ain Defla province, 140 kilometers from the capital.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed the attack in an unverified statement posted online late on Saturday night.

“The knights of Islam have, on the first night of Eid killed 14 soldiers in an ambush on an army platoon in the area of Djebel Louh,” it said, adding that the attackers managed to escape unharmed after seizing the dead troops' weapons.

The defence ministry has made no official statement on the attack, but the news was widely circulated on social media and some facebook users posted pictures of alleged victims.

The ministry of defence said in a statement that 102 militants were killed, captured or surrendered to security forces in the first half of 2015.


The Ain Defla region was considered a hub for militant groups during the 1990s, but there has been a drop in militancy in Algeria in recent years.

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