Reports: Hamza bin Laden Killed in Operation Involving US

Osama bin Laden's son Hamza. File photo
Osama bin Laden's son Hamza. File photo
TT

Reports: Hamza bin Laden Killed in Operation Involving US

Osama bin Laden's son Hamza. File photo
Osama bin Laden's son Hamza. File photo

Osama bin Laden's son Hamza, chosen heir to the leadership of al-Qaeda, has been killed, American officials said Wednesday.

Questioned by reporters in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump did not confirm or deny the matter.

"I don't want to comment on it," he said.

But US media, including the New York Times, quoted officials as saying that they had confirmation Hamza bin Laden was killed during the last two years in an operation involving the United States.

Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces who raided his compound in Pakistan in 2011. Hamza was thought to be in Iran at the time, and documents recovered from the compound indicated that aides had been trying to reunite him with his father.

In February, the State Department said it was offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading "to the identification or location in any country" of Hamza, calling him a key al-Qaeda leader.



Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
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Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)

An Italian journalist detained in Iran since Dec. 19 and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials announced.

A plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.

There was no immediate word from the Iranian government on the journalist’s release.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the country, the official IRNA news agency said.

Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before on Dec. 16, on a US warrant.

The US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost near the Syrian-Jordanian border that killed three American troops.

He remains in detention in Italy.