Saudi Arabia revokes citizenship of Hamza bin Laden
Dubai : Saudi Arabia announced Friday it had revoked the citizenship of Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaida leader who has become an increasingly prominent figure in the terror network.
There was no immediate explanation why the royal decree stripping his citizenship, signed in November, was only becoming public now.
However, the announcement comes after the U.S. government on Thursday offered a USD 1 million reward for information leading to his capture as part of its "Rewards for Justice" program.
The kingdom similarly stripped Osama bin Laden's citizenship in 1994 while living in exile in Sudan when Hamza bin Laden was just a child. Where he is now remains in question.
"This is an example of history rhyming," said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies who studies al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
"He's basically born right after al-Qaida is founded, so his life is totally consumed in the establishment, the formation of al-Qaida and the launching of its war against the West and America."
Saudi Arabia revoked Hamza bin Laden's citizenship in November, according to a circular by the Interior Ministry quietly published Friday by the country's official gazette. State-run media in the kingdom did not report on the decision.
Bin Laden is believed to have been born in 1989, the year of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, where his father became known among the mujahedeen fighters.
His father returned to Saudi Arabia and later fled to Sudan after criticizing the kingdom for allowing US troops to deploy in the country during the 1991 Gulf War. He later fled Sudan for Afghanistan in 1996, where he declared war against the US.
As leader of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden oversaw a series of attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen.
He and others plotted and executed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, which led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. US Navy SEALs ultimately killed bin Laden in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
For Hamza bin Laden, now believed to be around 30, his father initially worried for his safety and thought to send him away for study, but his son instead "wants to get into the fight," Joscelyn said. He's then sent away for explosives training in Pakistan.
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.
Previous images have only shown him as a child. The State Department said in its announcement Thursday about the USD 1 million bounty on him that it believes he married the daughter of Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hamza bin Laden began appearing in militant videos and recordings in 2015 as an al-Qaida spokesman.
"If you think that your sinful crime that you committed in Abbottabad has passed without punishment, then you thought wrong," he said in his first audio recording.
In recent years, the Islamic State group, which began as al-Qaida in Iraq before breaking away from the terror group, has taken much of the international attention.
However, Joscelyn warned al-Qaida remains a transnational threat, something that authorities may now pay more attention to as the Islamic State group withers away in Syria.
A United Nations report published last year noted that Hamza bin Laden "continued to emerge as a leadership figure in al-Qaida."
It suggested both he and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden's death, "are reported to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas."
"Al-Qaida's leadership demonstrates strategic patience and its regional affiliates exercise good tactical judgment, embedding themselves in local issues and becoming players," the UN report warned.
"While there is as yet little evidence of a re-emerging direct global threat from al-Qaida, improved leadership and enhanced communication will probably increase the threat over time."
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Four doctors in Kerala booked for birth of newborn with genetic disorders
Alappuzha, (Kerala) (PTI): Four doctors in Kerala have been booked for allegedly failing to detect genetic disorders in a newborn while it was still in the mother's womb, the police said on Thursday.
The accused include two female doctors attached to the Kadappuram Government Women and Child Hospital in Alappuzha, along with two doctors from private diagnostic labs, according to the Alappuzha South police.
The police registered an FIR on Tuesday based on a complaint lodged by Anish and Surumi, a couple from Alappuzha.
They alleged that the doctors failed to detect or disclose the genetic abnormalities during prenatal scans, instead assuring them that the reports were normal.
The couple also claimed that they were shown the baby only four days after delivery, according to the complaint.
The FIR stated that Surumi, 35, was undergoing treatment for her third pregnancy at Kadappuram Women and Child Hospital.
On October 30, Surumi was admitted for delivery. However, she was referred to Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Vandanam, Alappuzha, citing the absence of fetal movement and heartbeat, the FIR said.
On November 8, the baby was delivered following surgery at MCH and was found to have severe internal and external deformities, the FIR stated.
Meanwhile, one of the accused doctors, responding to the allegations, said she had treated Surumi only during the initial months of her pregnancy.
"I provided care for three months at the beginning of her pregnancy. The reports shown to me indicated issues with the fetus's growth," she said.
The doctors associated with the diagnostic labs, however, maintained that there were no errors in the scan reports.
The police registered a case invoking Sections 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 125 (b) (where grievous hurt is caused, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees, or with both) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the accused.
