An explosive Western intelligence assessment claims Hamza bin Laden faked his reported 2019 death using al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network – dubbed the “Sopranos of Afghanistan”
Osama bin Laden’s eldest son Hamza bin Laden faked his death in 2019 in a sophisticated hoax designed to deceive Western spies – with help from al-Qaeda and a ruthless militant “mafia clan” dubbed the “Sopranos of Afghanistan”, according to an explosive new intelligence assessment.
Hamza, 37, was previously said by US President Donald Trump to have been killed in a US airstrike along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
But the new Western assessment claims he is alive, based in Afghanistan and now actively running al-Qaeda operations. According to the report, the staging relied on the Haqqani network, described by intelligence agencies as the “Sopranos of Afghanistan”.
It claims that, knowing the CIA was wiretapping communications, former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ordered operatives to talk openly on monitored phone lines about Hamza’s “death” and to mourn him. This reportedly was a coordinated disinformation campaign that helped convince the US government he had been killed.
“Further intelligence and sources concluded that family telephone conversations were manipulated to reinforce intercepted reporting and that the result was Hamza’s removal from active targeting while he remained under protection,” the report claims. The assessment claims Hamza has used the last seven years to quietly rebuild al-Qaeda’s global infrastructure – and now poses a renewed threat to the West, the Daily Mail reported.
It alleges he is currently based in northern Afghanistan under strict protection from about 450 snipers and camp guards, while establishing extremist cells across Asia and Africa. It adds that he is now allegedly plotting fresh large-scale attacks on Western nations – and that Britain remains firmly in the crosshairs.
“The United Kingdom faces a convergent threat. Al-Qaeda retains a historic focus upon Britain as a military ally of the United States, whether under this shaky U-turn government or otherwise,” the report said.
“The overall assessment is that the strategic jihadist threat to the UK, continental Europe, the US and allied interests has entered a renewed warning phase.” The document claims Hamza’s network “has the capacity to facilitate widespread terror and disruption across the West”, warning: “The resulting danger includes externally directed mass-casualty attacks, remotely enabled plots, attacks by inspired individuals, aviation and transport targeting, assaults on Jewish and Israeli interests.”
It also argues his importance goes beyond operational planning. “Hamza bin Laden’s value to al-Qaeda is ideological, dynastic and operational.
“As a son of Osama bin Laden, he offers a direct line to the movement’s founding mythology,” it states, adding: “Before the reported counter-terrorism operation, Hamza had already been used to call for attacks against the US and its allies… and to present himself as an inheritor of al-Qaeda’s global cause.”
The intelligence leak comes as al-Qaeda’s media wing As-Sahab released a new 50-minute propaganda video marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, reportedly featuring the first newly public footage of Hamza in years.
The film, titled “A Quarter Century of the 11 September Raids”, also includes unseen images of slain leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, with reports suggesting it is designed to bolster the ideology linked to current figurehead Saif al-Adl – and use the bin Laden name to drive recruitment.
“The core warning is al-Qaeda should no longer be assessed as a defeated legacy organisation,” the report warns. “It has retained patience, senior expertise, regional affiliates and a powerful brand… Hamza bin Laden’s reappearance, whether principally operational or symbolic, can unify these strands.”
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