Osama Bin Laden’s Son Hamza Appears In Al-Qaeda Video 7 Years After US Declared Him Dead

Al-Qaeda’s media wing As-Sahab has released a new propaganda video featuring footage of Hamza bin Laden, son of the group’s founder Osama bin Laden, on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The appearance has renewed questions about Hamza’s reported death after the US announced in 2019 that he had been killed in a counterterrorism operation.

The 50-minute video, titled 'A Quarter Century of the 11 September Raids', is the first known release to feature previously unseen footage of Hamza in this context. Reports say he appears multiple times, including seated against a cracked mud wall, wearing a white turban with an assault rifle beside him.

The footage also includes previously unreleased material involving former Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and archival footage linked to the group’s operations. The video reportedly opens with material related to the 2014 attack on Pakistan’s Karachi naval dockyard, highlighting Al-Qaeda’s regional networks and history.

Analysts believe Hamza’s presentation deliberately echoes the imagery associated with his father’s early propaganda videos. His appearance appears designed to revive the Bin Laden name and connect it with Al-Qaeda’s current leadership and ideology. Reports also say the video promotes the ideological line associated with Al-Qaeda chief Saif al-Adl.

The footage is particularly significant because the White House announced Hamza’s death in September 2019, saying he had been killed in a US counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The statement did not specify when he was killed or how the US had confirmed his death.

The announcement came months after the US State Department had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Hamza’s identification or location, describing him as an emerging Al-Qaeda leader.

Al-Qaeda has never publicly acknowledged Hamza’s death through the kind of formal statement or eulogy issued for some of its senior leaders. His appearance in the new video therefore adds fresh uncertainty, although the footage itself does not establish when it was recorded or independently prove that he is alive today.

The release comes as Al-Qaeda marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and became the defining operation associated with Osama bin Laden and the group.