Osama Bin Laden’s number two has warned Gordon Brown that al-Qaida will attack Britain again in retaliation for awarding a knighthood to controversial author Salman Rushdie.

Al-Qaida’s No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, blasted US President George Bush, saying he had been an alcoholic and was now a liar who gambled on the American people in Iraq and lost, according to a new audiotape released today.

Al-Qaida No.2 Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Muslims to step up their resistance against the US, in a video aired by CNN early today on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

An Arab television station has broadcast previously unseen footage of a smiling Osama bin Laden meeting the top planners of the September 11 attacks in an Afghan mountain camp and calling on followers to pray for the hijackers as they carried out the suicide mission.

Previously unshown footage of the preparations for the September 11 attacks in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is seen meeting some of the planners and hijackers in a mountain camp in Afghanistan was screened tonight by al-Jazeera television.

Osama bin Laden has praised al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the “lion of holy war” in a new video posted on the internet today.

Osama bin Laden will issue a videotaped message paying tribute to slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a message on an Islamic militant website said today.