[IsraelTimes] Mark Esper confirms reports the late Osama bin Laden...... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse......
’s 15th son and heir as head of jihadist group was killed in the past two years in US-aided operation.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has confirmed the death of Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
"That’s my understanding," Esper said in an interview late Wednesday with Fox News, when asked if Hamza bin Laden was dead.
"I don’t have the details on that. And if I did I’m not sure how much I could share with you," he added.
| A pretty tepid confirmation... |
But US President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
and other bigwigs have refused to confirm or deny it publicly.
"I don’t want to comment on it," Trump told news hounds when asked.
The 15th of Osama bin Laden’s 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, thought to be about 30 years old, was "emerging as a leader in the al-Qaeda franchise," the State Department has said.
Sometimes dubbed the "crown prince of jihad," he had put out audio and video messages calling for attacks on the United States and other countries, especially to avenge his father’s killing by US forces in Pakistain in May 2011, the department has said.
That work made him important in attracting a new generation of followers to the hard boy group which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US which left some 3,000 dead.
His father’s death in 2011 and the rise of the more virulent Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group saw al-Qaeda lose currency with younger jihadists, but the group appears to have been plotting a stealthy comeback under leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
.