(Image source from: timesnownews.com)

The United States on Thursday offered a reward of USD 1 million for information on a son of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, seeing him as an emerging face of extremism.

The location of Hamza bin Laden, sometimes called by “crown prince of jihad,” has been the subject of speculation for years with reports of him living in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or under confinement in Iran.

“Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former AQ leader Osama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the AQ franchise,” a State Department statement said, referring to Al-Qaeda.

The State Department said that it would offer USD 1 million for information leading to his location in any country.

In order to retaliate the killing if his father, Bin Laden, who according to the United States is around 30, has made threat attacks against the United States. Osama bin Laden was living in hiding in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, by the U.S. special forces.

The Intelligence agencies of the United States to an increasing extent see the son of Osama bin Laden as a replacement to his father for the mantle of global jihad.

In 2015, bin Laden released an audio message advising jihadists in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to “liberating Palestine.” And a year later, following the footsteps of his father, in a message her urged the termination of the leadership in their native Saudi Arabia.

Osama bin Laden’s three surviving wives and his children were quietly allowed to return to Saudi Arabia after his killing.

But the whereabouts of Hamza bin Laden has been a matter of dispute. He is believed to have spent years along with his mother in Iran, despite Al-Qaeda’s strident denunciations of the Shiite branch of Islam that dominates the country.

According to reports, Hamza bin Laden married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in Al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed around 3,000 people and sparked the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan.

-Sowmya Sangam