US adds Osama bin Laden’s son to global terrorist list

The State Department on Thursday announced that Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list.

The action also imposes sanctions on the son of Osama bin Laden.

Hamza bin Laden was added to the terror list after he was “determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security.”

The State Department says the U.S. public and the international community have been notified that “Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism.”

U.S. citizens are prohibited from engaging in transactions with bin Laden.

In 2014, Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al-Qaida member by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded the elder bin Laden as leader of the terror group.

In 2011, al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special operations forces.

State Department officials say the younger bin Laden has threatened revenge against the U.S. for the killing of his father.

Bruce Riedel, an analyst with the Brookings Institution, a not-for-profit public policy organization in Washington, D.C., wrote on the group’s website in 2015 that “Hamza bin Laden is the ‘new face for al-Qaida’ “ and “an articulate and dangerous enemy.”

The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a regional branch of the group.

Al-Banna, who was born in Egypt, has described al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington as “virtuous” and threatened to target Americans in the United States and abroad, the State Department said.

Source: npr.com