DUBAI, April 15: Osama bin Laden was shown in an undated videotape excerpt aired on Monday, sitting silently alongside a top aide who praised the Sept 11 attacks as a “great victory”.

Qatar-based satellite television network al-Jazeera broadcast the footage, which also included what it said was the videotaped will of one of the suspected Sept 11 hijackers.

A station official said the tape was “old” but had apparently not been broadcast before.

In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Pentagon also had obtained what appeared to be an old videotape with Osama on it, but that it was not clear whether it was the same tape aired by al-Jazeera.

He said he still did not know whether Osama was alive or dead.

In the excerpt broadcast by al-Jazeera on Monday, Osama is seen sitting silently on a patch of grass next to his aide Ayman al-Zawahri, who said: “Those 19 brothers who went out and sacrificed their lives for God were rewarded with this victory.

“This is a great victory, which was in fact achieved by the will of God Almighty and not because of our skill or superiority,” he said.

Zawahri’s sermon-like style made it unclear whether he was admitting to Al Qaeda’s involvement in the September attacks or referring to the attacks as a victory for Muslims in general.

The videotape also included footage of Ahmed Alghamdi, a Saudi believed to be one of the 19 hijackers who piloted airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“It is high time that we killed Americans in their home,” said Alghamdi, bearded and wearing a checkered Arab headdress. “Lord I regard myself as a martyr for you, so accept me as such.”

The station said in a statement that Alghamdi’s videotaped message was recorded in Kandahar six months before the Sept 11 attacks, according to information on the film.

Rumsfeld said in response to questions at a news conference that he had watched parts of a Osama tape on Sunday, but refused to say how the United States had obtained it.—Reuters