Video of last will of September 11 hijacker to be aired

THE media arm of al-Qaida said yesterday, on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it will soon release a new video of Osama bin Laden giving the last testament of one of the hijackers.

As-Sahab made the announcement on a website used by Islamist militants, just days after it released the first video in nearly three years of the world’s most wanted man.

It did not say whether the release would be a video or audiotape, but showed images of bin Laden and hijacker Walid al-Shehri, suggesting it would be a video.

“Soon, God willing, testaments of the martyrs of the New York and Washington conquests,” said the announcement.

“Testament of the martyr Walid al-Shehri, presented by Sheikh Osama bin Laden, God preserve him.”

The image of bin Laden shown on the website was the same as his appearance in last Friday’s broadcast video, wearing a white robe topped by a beige cloak and with his beard trimmed and dyed in black.

The US-based IntelCenter monitors Islamic militant websites. It said it would be the sixth such ‘last will’ to be issued by a 9/11 hijacker and expected it to be released in 72 hours, even within 24 hours.

Shehri, a Saudi national, was one of the hijackers on a flight that hit the World Trade Center in New York.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi.

In the previous video, the elusive al-Qaida chief mocked the US as “weak” and vowed to escalate fighting in Iraq.

It was bin Laden’s first such appearance since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks stated in a video just days before the US presidential election.

Experts warned that the video, which was presented as a “message to the American people”, offered hints al-Qaida is planning another US attack.

According to Azzam Tamimi, head of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, the beard dye is a “sign of war”.