The United States is offering up to $1million (£750,000) in return for information about one of Osama Bin Laden’s sons, who is thought to have been groomed to lead al-Qaeda.
Officials says Hamza Bin Laden is emerging as a leader of the Islamist militant group, which his late father headed up.
Rewards for Justice, a US State Department counterterrorism rewards program, posted the wanted page for Bin Laden, who is believed to be based near the Afghan-Pakistani border.
He is said to have married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, who hijacked one of the four planes that went down during the September 11, 2011 attacks.
A statement from the department read: “Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former al-Qa’ida leader Usama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the al-Qa’ida franchise.
“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, and he has threatened attacks against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by U.S. military forces.”
It added: “Letters seized from the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where bin Laden was killed indicate that he was grooming Hamza to replace him as leader of al-Qa’ida.”
Estimated to the be in his early 30s, he has in recent years released audio and video messages calling on followers to avenge his father’s killing by attacking the US and its Western allies.
US special forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011. He oversaw the 9/11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Set up by Osama Bin Laden in the late 1980s amid the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, al-Qaeda later declared a “holy war” on the United States and its allies.
It has in recent years being eclipsed by Islamic State.