Osama bin Laden's eldest son faked his death in 2019 with the help of al-Qaeda and a ruthless mafia clan dubbed 'the Sopranos of Afghanistan', according to an astonishing new intelligence assessment.
Over the years, Hamza, 37, is understood to have secretly built up a network of killers across Asia and Africa and is now planning to attack the West, the assessment warned.
Known as 'The Prince and Dauphin of Terror', Hamza was said by Donald Trump to have been killed in an airstrike in 2019.
But his death was allegedly faked by al-Qaeda, the ruthless network behind the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 people and kickstarted America's 20-year War on Terror.
Amid the news of Hamza's reemergence, the militant organisation is becoming a deadly threat once again.
The UK is firmly in the terror network's sights, due to its military collaboration with the US, its colonial history in the Middle East, ties to Israel and its business relations with the Gulf states.
The West may fall victim to mass casualty attacks, individual attacks, kidnappings, murder, sabotage and the targeting of politicians or other senior figures, the assessment claimed.
'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.
Over the years, Hamza, 37, is understood to have secretly built up a network of killers across Asia and Africa and is planning to attack the West, the intelligence assessment claimed
Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9.03am on September 11
Al-Qaeda allegedly conned the CIA into believing Hamza had been killed, because they knew they were being spied upon, the report revealed.
Hamza was groomed by the former al-Qaeda chief Ayman Zawahiri to take up power.
After a CIA-sponsored airstrike, he told Hamza's circle to report his death via telephone calls.
The careful ruse was aided by the Haqqani Network - a deadly mafia gang nicknamed 'the Sopranos of Afghanistan', which exercises huge influence within the Taliban.
Zawahiri - an Egyptian physician turned terror leader - instructed Hamza's associates to speak openly on the phone about Hamza's passing, convincing those listening that the death was authentic.
And so when Zawahiri was killed himself in an airstrike targeting a Kabul balcony in 2022, the bin Laden terror heir rose through the ranks and took over the reins of the ruthless network.
Hamza is understood to be lusting for revenge, and has apparently planted terror camps across Afghanistan.
He has allegedly linked up with the Iranian military, Hamas, the Islamic State and dozens of other militant groups.
The former British military HQ in Helmand, Camp Bastion, has been used as a training camp for multiple groups, including Hamas before the October 7 massacre, according to the report.
The growing threat from al-Qaeda is understood to be specifically towards the UK and America.
The report warns: '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 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 adds.
Political assassinations are also within the realm of possibility, as is 'hostage-taking, cyber-enabled facilitation and the exploitation of polarisation generated by the wars in Gaza and the Middle East'.
Invigorated by Hamza's terrorist lineage, al-Qaeda, the report claims, has developed the mythology of Osama beyond his assassination by US special forces in 2011.
'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,' the intelligence document outlines.
'Before the reported counter-terrorism operation, Hamza had already been used to call for attacks against the US and its allies, to encourage revenge for his father's death and to present himself as an inheritor of al-Qaeda's global cause.'
In September 2019, when Hamza was said to be killed, no body was produced following the counter-terror operation.
'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.
On November 14, 2022, Hamza was formally appointed as al-Qaeda's emir, or chief.
This occurred at the now rebuilt al-Farooq camp in Kandahar, built by his father before being destroyed.
Present at the meeting were the Taliban, Haqqani, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and groups of African and Syrian representatives.
The intelligence assessment concludes that the UK must take the renewed al-Qaeda threat seriously.
'The core warning is al-Qaeda should no longer be assessed as a defeated legacy organisation,' it warns.
'It has retained patience, senior expertise, regional affiliates and a powerful brand. Taliban-controlled Afghanistan gives it strategic depth, while conflict in Gaza, state competition involving Iran, insecurity in the Sahel and online radicalisation provide opportunities for mobilisation.
'Hamza bin Laden's reappearance, whether principally operational or symbolic, can unify these strands.'