In , Bin Laden finally allowed his wife Najwa to travel to Syria, only with her eldest son Abdul Rahman, who suffered from autism, and her two young daughters, Ruqaya and Nour. Bin Laden prevented her from taking her daughter Iman and her other son although knew what would happen to his family, after the terror strikes at the World Trade Center towers.
Iman, 10, and Laden, 6, had been living in Iran for nine years before the Iranian regime allowed them to go to Syria and join their mother. On the other hand, the other three wives and 11 children at Abbottabad had to return to their families after being arrested by Pakistani authorities, ending the one-year prison term for illegally entering Pakistani territory.
However, her sister Fatima, the wife of Suleiman Bughith, was lucky to leave Iran and return to her family with her children in ; along with her two sisters, Sumaya and Mariam. As for the brothers Saad was eventually killed in a drone strike after he left Iran, while the fate of two others remains unknown. In the end, the father and the leader of the most dangerous terrorist organization was killed, and the children were left in the hands of Egyptian authorities.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site and to show you personalized advertising. For more information, please read our Privacy Policy. Photos and videos released from the Abbottabad files show how bin Laden's family lived in hiding. File photo. Huda al-Saleh, Al Arabiya English. Share URL Copied. Get the latest stories from AlArabiya on Google News. Also Read.
Editor's Choice. Saudi-backed company harnesses waste energy to mine bitcoins. Top Content. Qatar to represent US interests in Afghanistan: Official. Outside was an alley and yard, facing 6ft-high walls topped with razor wire. Renovations and repairs were ongoing, suggesting hasty decisions had been taken to contain them. Their fears were well founded: the civilian government in Tehran had caught wind of the secret al-Qaida migration and now trumped the freewheeling Major General Suleimani by offering prisoners to Washington DC in exchange for diplomatic recognition and an easing of sanctions.
Had they accepted, al-Qaida would have been critically weakened. Tensions with their hosts, terrible food and unsanitary conditions had taken their toll. Saad, 28, was by now the father of three children, a boy named Osama and two little girls. A few months earlier his wife, Wafa, had had another son who died because the Iranians had refused a hospital visit.
As tensions reached breaking point, Mahfouz, who lived with the family, fought for concessions. Family groups were taken out on day trips by Iranian escorts to visit famous landmarks in Tehran, where they mingled with American tourists.
A temporary rapprochement was reached during Ramadan in October , when the Iranians took al-Qaida out for an iftar breaking the fast meal at a five-star restaurant in downtown Tehran. The following Friday, a car arrived at Block to pick them up, before speeding toward Tehran University. A roar rose up outside as a TV on the wall focused on rows of devotees, scholars, clerics and officials standing for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
T he following spring, relations between the al-Qaida guests and their Iranian hosts soured again. But when the guards tried to manhandle him, a full-blown prison riot exploded. Egyptian and Libyan al-Qaida brothers ripped up sheets and shattered wooden beds, setting fires, hurling petrol bombs made with secretly stockpiled heating fuel and daubing anti-Shia messages on the walls.
Hamzah vowed to sign up for the jihad. However, first someone had to escape to raise the alarm. Everyone hesitated. Despite the tough talking, they had all become fearful of the outside world. Soon after, Fatima learned that Khadija, her favourite sister, had died in Waziristan giving birth to twins.
One baby was also dead; the other, a girl, was critically ill. Fatima was devastated. Deep depression settled over the family compound.
In May , Iranian officials arrived on a detente mission, carrying boxes of sweets and cakes. Saad bin Laden spotted that the gate had been left open and, speaking fast in Arabic, he ordered his nephews and nieces to make a run for it.
They hurtled out toward the entrance, surprising the Quds force guards, who stood down, not wanting to fire on children. Soon they were joined by their mothers, who sat down by the main gate, through which they could see members of the public strolling by. Confronted with a top-secret cache of al-Qaida hostages crying out for help, Major General Suleimani sent in ice-creams for the children and a lavish meal for the adults, served out on the gravel.
But no one budged. Exasperated, the Iranians eventually sent soldiers dressed in black overalls and ski masks to beat the families back into Block Since the Iranians could no longer control their al-Qaida guests, the family was moving.
Their new home was a sand-coloured villa surrounded by a low mud-brick wall. The Iranian escorts took rooms closest to the main gate. There would be no trips out, they said. Such privileges had been lost. But as the family members wandered around, one thing struck them: there were no security cameras at the rear.
Hamzah volunteered to hop over the back wall. Khairiah vetoed it. At 19, he was too young. Besides, his wife, Asma, had just given birth to a daughter. Saad, the eldest son present, said he would do it. His siblings shook their heads in disbelief — he would never survive.
But that night, Saad slipped over the wall into the desert night. He was determined to find his father in Pakistan and then rescue them all. It consisted of purpose-built apartments for each family, a school, mosque, football pitch, even a swimming pool. But with tall walls and motion censors, it was a more modern prison and from their rooms they could hear Quds force recruits training. Whisked to the Afghan border and given a Thuraya satellite phone — a location and device that were intended to confuse American eavesdroppers — they were ordered to say nothing about their precise location.
Over the years, Omar and his mother, Najwa, had written to the International Red Cross and the United Nations in search of their family. Now, stunned, they got a call from the desert. Omar promised to help.
Omar said he was forced to train for the terrorist group since age 14, but left in as he objected to killing civilians. The pair had a brief holiday romance in Egypt before their nuptials, but shortly announced their divorce in The transatlantic lovers later said they made the announcements under duress and threats to their lives and their families lives and still appeared to be married as of The couple also struggled with visa issues as Omar was keen to move to the UK with his wife, but was denied as it would cause "considerable public concern".
Omar said he would like to become an "ambassador of peace" between Muslims and the West, and describes a complicated relationship with his terrorist dad. He has spoken perviously to ABC about harsh beatings from bin Laden, and also claimed the last time he spoke to him was around or Hamza bin Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, who was killed in , was allegedly poised to take over as al-Qaeda's terror chief. The heir to the bloody throne's past was dotted with various dodgy terror dealings, including a twisted poem he penned in proclaiming: "Accelerate the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark".
Hamza is also said to be linked to the assasination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - although this is hotly disputed.
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