Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the "caravan" of martyrs as he praised one of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers in a new video that emerged yesterday to mark the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Al-Qaeda traditionally issues a video every year on the anniversary, with the last testament of one of the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks on the US.
This year's video showed hijacker Waleed al-Shehri, who addressed the camera and said: "We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left."
The new message came days after the world got its first new look at bin Laden in nearly three years, with the release of a video on Saturday in which the terror leader addressed the US.
The videotape of the hijacker's testament had not yet been posted on extremist Web sites.
It begins with an audiotape introduction by bin Laden. While his voice is heard, the video shows a still image of him, raising his finger. In the image, bin Laden has the same dyed-black beard and the same clothes -- a white robe and cap and beige cloak -- that he had in Saturday's video.
But it was not known when the audiotape was made. In the past, al-Qaeda had used footage and audio of bin Laden taped long ago.
At the end of his speech, bin Laden also mentioned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in an US air strike there.
Al-Zarqawi followed in the footsteps of al-Shehri and his brothers who "fulfilled their promises to God," bin Laden said. "And now it is our turn."
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