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Hamza bin Laden
promised to continue the global militant group's fight against
the United States and its allies in the 21-minute speech
entitled "We Are All Osama," according to the SITE Intelligence
Group.
"We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country
and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of
Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest
of the Muslim lands that did not survive your oppression," Hamza
said.
"As for the revenge by the Islamic nation for Sheikh Osama, may
Allah have mercy on him, it is not revenge for Osama the person
but it is revenge for those who defended Islam."
Osama bin Laden was killed at his Pakistani hideout by U.S.
commandos in 2011 in a major blow to the militant group which
carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Documents recovered from bin Laden's compound and published by
the United States last year alleged that his aides tried to
reunite the militant leader with Hamza, who had been held under
house arrest in Iran.
Hamza, now in his mid-twenties, was at his father's side in
Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks and spent time with him in
Pakistan after the U.S.-led invasion pushed much of al Qaeda's
senior leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution.
Introduced by the organization's new chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in
an audio message last year, Hamza provides a younger voice for
the group whose aging leaders have struggled to inspire
militants around the world galvanized by Islamic State.
"Hamza provides a new face for al Qaeda, one that directly
connects to the group's founder. He is an articulate and
dangerous enemy," according to Bruce Riedel of Brookings.
(Reporting By Asma Alabed; Editing by Noah Browning and Janet
Lawrence)
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