Osama bin Laden’s Son Thought Killed in Predator Strike
July 22, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
Sa’ad bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden, is thought to have been killed in a US Predator airstrike in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The report has not been confirmed.
Sa’ad is thought to have been killed during a strike earlier this year, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.
“We’re pretty sure but we’re not certain,” one official said. “We are hopeful.”
US intelligence want to confirm or deny Sa’ad’s death by using DNA testing. But it is unclear if they have recovered a body from the attack site.
The officials would not identify the date or the location of the airstrike that is thought to have killed Sa’ad. The covert US air campaign has focused heavily on North and South Waziristan. Fifty percent of the attacks occurred in South Waziristan, and 38 percent took place in North Waziristan, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The US has killed a total of 22 High Value Targets which include some of the high- and mid-level Taliban and al Qaeda.
Osama bin Laden’s Son Saad Has Returned To Pakistan
September 28, 2008 by national
Filed under World Report
Osama bin Laden’s son, Saad has returned to Pakistan according to messages posted on a Jihad web forum.
Al Qaeda is consolidating its leadership in the territory under its control in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden’s son and heir apparent, Sa’ad bin Laden, has returned to Pakistan from his safe haven in Iran, according to messages posted on a Qaeda jihad Web forum known as al-Hesbah.
An organization that tracks and translates discussions on such forums, the SITE Institute, provided its subscribers with a summary of messages describing what it said was an escape by Sa’ad bin Laden from an Iranian prison. American counterterrorism officials, however, have considered him to be under a permissive version of house arrest since the American invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001.
The move of Sa’ad bin Laden to Pakistan tracks with the movements of other senior jihadists to the country since Al Qaeda re-established a safe haven in the 10,500-square-mile area that comprises the provinces along the border with Afghanistan.
It also could signal a new phase of Iran’s relationship with Al Qaeda. For the last year, public messages from the terrorist organization’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, have accused Iran of collaborating with America in fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. Leaders of the Iraqi tribal uprising against Al Qaeda, however, have said Iran has collaborated with their foes.
While Al Qaeda, a Sunni Salafist organization, regards the Shiite theocracy of Iran as an apostate form of Islam, the two sides in the past have worked together through Iran’s Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian army. In 2001, following the American invasion of Afghanistan, most of Al Qaeda’s leadership fled to Pakistan. But others, including Sa’ad bin Laden and Saif al-Adel, fled to eastern Iran.
