Video tape shows Bin Laden meeting 9/11 attackers

Osama Bin Laden

DUBAI - Al Jazeera television aired a video tape today showing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden meeting what it said were the September 11 attackers, days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the strikes.

The Arabic channel said the tape documented the "daily life" of al Qaeda operatives as they trained and prepared in the mountains of Afghanistan. Bin Laden was shown in long white robes walking through rocky terrain with aides carrying rifles.

The video was clearly timed to coincide with commemorations across the United States of the anniversary of an attack that killed almost 3000 and launched the world superpower on a "war against terror" from home shores to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The television identified two men in the tape as Ramzi Binalshibh, suspected coordinator of the September 11 plot and believed to be in US custody, and Abu Hafs al-Masri -- a former top lieutenant of bin Laden who was killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.

The video portrayed Saudi Arabian Bin Laden, dressed in dark robe and white headgear, greeting a fighter against the backdrop of a mountain. Two of the September 11 attackers, Wael al-Shihri and Hamza al-Ghamdi, were shown presenting their taped "wills".

Al-Shihri's address carried the English language subtitle "One of the Martyrs of the Manhattan Raid".

Al-Ghamdi is believed to have been among a group that took control of a United Airlines flight and crashed it into New York's World Trade Centre on the morning of September 11, 2001.

Both WTC towers were demolished by the impact of airliners, the Pentagon was hit by a third aircraft and a fourth crashed into a field. The attackers were largely Saudi Arabians

"If we accept our humiliation ... the footsteps of the enemy will stretch from Jerusalem to Mecca," a man identified as al-Ghamdi was shown as saying.

Scenes showed one man chopping wood, and another one of a man preparing a meal.

US forces have been hunting for Bin Laden since an American-led military coalition forced from power the militant Islamist Taleban that had hosted his training camps. Believed to be hiding in Afghan mountains close to the Pakistani border, he and his allies have sought to taunt US authorities with taped declarations.

The Taleban itself is in resurgence in southern Afghanistan, posing serious problems for Western forces.

- REUTERS