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A day after the twenty third anniversary of the Sept. 11 assaults, the FBI put out a name to the general public for info on the whereabouts of a once-close affiliate of Usama bin Laden for his alleged involvement with al Qaeda.
Hamza Al Ghamdi, who served as a trusted member of bin Laden’s safety element within the interval main as much as the 2001 assaults, held vital roles throughout the terror community and served in varied battle zones through the years, Tony Molloy, the particular agent answerable for the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Job Drive within the bureau’s New York workplace, instructed Fox Information Digital.
“The FBI has info courting again to his affiliation in combating violent and waging violent Islamic extremist jihad in international battle zones courting again to the late ’90s,” Molloy stated.
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Hamza Al Ghamdi, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, is needed for questioning in connection along with his membership in al Qaeda. He as soon as served on the safety element for Usama bin Laden, the FBI stated. (FBI)
Ghamdi is needed for questioning in connection along with his alleged membership in al Qaeda, throughout which he served as bin Laden’s private bodyguard and different roles.
“We all know by way of his affiliation and his associations that put him in direct contact with these senior leaders that he possible has info of historic relevance to our investigations and our present investigations into al Qaeda operations and assaults globally within the final 20 years,” Molloy stated.
Like bin Laden, Ghamdi is a local of Saudi Arabia and fought alongside the deceased terror chief in opposition to Russian troops in Afghanistan within the Nineteen Eighties, the FBI stated. He additionally participated in terrorist assaults in Tajikistan within the early Nineties and operated an al Qaeda guesthouse within the Afghan capital of Kabul, authorities stated.
Hamza Al Ghamdi has allegedly participated in armed jihad in varied battle areas, together with Afghanistan and Tajikistan. (FBI)
In December 2001, he fought within the final battle of Tora Bora, a U.S. army operation in jap Afghanistan aimed toward capturing or killing bin Laden, who was believed to be hiding out in caves. Bin Laden finally evaded seize till he was killed by U.S. forces in 2011 whereas hiding out in Pakistan.
Ghamdi is believed to be someplace in Afghanistan, presumably close to the nation’s border with Pakistan, stated Molloy. The State Division is providing a $5 million reward for his seize.
“He tends to function in non-permissive places, which makes it tough to find and query him,” Molloy stated.
Removed from being only a member of al Qaeda, Ghamdi labored with the group’s senior leaders, together with Ayman al-Zawahiri, who performed a task within the Sept. 11 assaults and was killed in a 2022 U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan.
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Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan, seems in an undated FBI Most Wished poster. (FBI/Handout through Reuters)
“His demise offers a major blow to al Qaeda and can degrade the group’s capability to function, together with in opposition to the U.S. homeland,” President Biden stated on the time.
Biden stated Zawahiri additionally masterminded different assaults in opposition to the U.S., together with the October 2000 suicide bombing of the united statesCole in Yemen, which killed 17 U.S. sailors, and the 1998 assaults on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 223 individuals.
Injury to the U.S. destroyer US Cole following a terrorist assault in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. The assault killed 17 sailors and injured 40 others. (Reuters)
Regardless of the 23 years for the reason that Sept. 11 assaults, the FBI remains to be seeking to apprehend these concerned, the company stated.
“We now have not forgotten,” Christie M. Curtis, appearing assistant director answerable for the FBI’s New York Metropolis Discipline Workplace, stated in a Thursday information launch. “Twenty-three years later, the FBI remains to be in search of justice for the victims of the September eleventh assaults by persevering with to hunt those that want to hurt us.”
Usama bin Laden’s notorious “Letter to America” justified terror assaults on the US. (CNN through Getty Pictures)
The FBI has famous that Ghamdi just isn’t the identical Hamza al Ghamdi who was one of many terrorists on United Airways Flight 175 that took over the aircraft and crashed it into the World Commerce Heart in New York Metropolis.
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Molloy stated individuals like Ghamdi have to be taken off the “world jihad battlefield.”
“The American individuals count on it. The victims deserve it and it’ll make us all safer,” he stated.
FBI seeks former bin Laden affiliate Hamza Al Ghamdi for questioning
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