Hamza bin Laden’s message comes days after al-Qaida leader called for unity – despite continued rejection of Islamic State

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The son of Osama bin Laden has urged jihadis in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to “liberating Palestine”.

“The Islamic umma (nation) should focus on jihad in al-Sham (Syria) ... and unite the ranks of mujahideen there,” said Hamza bin Laden in an audio message posted online. “There is no longer an excuse for those who insist on division and disputes now that the whole world has mobilised against Muslims.”

How Isis crippled al-Qaida | Shiv Malik, Ali Younes, Spencer Ackerman, Mustafa Khalili Read more

His undated message comes after al-Qaida’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged jihadis in Syria to unite, despite his continued rejection of Islamic State and its proclaimed caliphate.

“The matter of unity today is one of life and death,” Zawahiri said in an audio message posted online on Saturday. “Either you unite to live as Muslims with dignity, or you bicker and separate and so are eaten one by one,” he added, according to SITE Intelligence, a monitoring group.

Al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front is a rival of Isis, which itself is an al-Qaida offshoot whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 declared an Islamic caliphate across territory seized in Iraq and Syria.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hamza bin Laden, in a still from an al-Jazeera broadcast from November 2001. Photograph: AFP

Bin Laden’s son said Syria is the “best battlefield” leading to “liberating al-Quds”, the Arabic name for Jerusalem. “The road to liberating Palestine is today much shorter compared to before the blessed Syrian revolution,” he said.

US intelligence officials have said that Hamza was the favourite son of Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind, who had been grooming him to take over as al-Qaida’s leader.