File Photo. AFP
Hamza bin Laden claims ridding the Gulf kingdom of its rulers would also remove U.S. influence from region.
The son of Al Qaeda’s slain founder Osama bin Laden has urged Saudis to “overthrow” the kingdom’s rulers in order to “free” themselves from U.S. influence, SITE Intelligence Group reported on Wednesday.
In an undated audio message, Hamza bin Laden urged Saudi youth to join the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to “gain the necessary experience” to fight, according to SITE.
Classified by the United States as the network’s deadliest franchise, AQAP was formed in January 2009 as a merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of Al Qaeda.
Yemen is the ancestral home of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan in 2011 by an elite team of U.S. Navy SEALS after a decade on the run.
U.S. intelligence officials have said that 23-year-old Hamza was the favorite son of the 9/11 mastermind who had been grooming him to take over as Al Qaeda’s leader.
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, experts have noted Hamza’s increasing prominence among jihadists in comparison to that of Egyptian Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.