Saudi Arabia has revoked the citizenship of Hamza bin Laden, son of late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Al Arabiya TV reported that the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the issuance of a royal decree, granting approval of stripping Hamza of Saudi nationality.
The move followed the offer by United States of a $1 million reward for information on Hamza, who it accused of extremism.
According to Al Arabiya, Hamza bin Laden is believed to have been born in 1989, the year of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The 15th of Osama bin Laden’s 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza has been groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps since childhood.
Hamza bin Laden began appearing in militant videos and recordings in 2015 as an al-Qaeda spokesman.
He has threatened attacks against the US to avenge the 2011 killing of his father – who was living in hiding in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad – by US special forces.
“Since at least August 2015, he has released audio and video messages on the Internet calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies,” the US State Department said in a statement on Thursday.
Video released by the CIA in 2017 that was seized during the Abbottabad raid shows Hamza bin Laden with a trimmed mustache but no beard, at his wedding.
A United Nations report published last year noted that Hamza bin Laden “continued to emerge as a leadership figure in al-Qaeda.”
He is believed to have spent years with his mother in Iran, where his wedding took place, and he is suspected to still live there.
One of Hamza bin Laden’s half-brothers told The Guardian of London last year that Hamza’s whereabouts is unknown but that he may be in Afghanistan.
He also said that Hamza bin Laden married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
