WASHINGTON, Aug 20: US news network CNN aired on Monday scenes from Al Qaeda videotapes which it claimed to have obtained in Afghanistan that show disturbing scenes of poisonous gas experiments on dogs and training sessions of the network’s militants.

Among the 64 videos is also intimate footage of Osama bin Laden. Analysts appearing on American television throughout the day said they shed new light on the network believed responsible for the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

The videos also contain instructions on how to build bombs and training methods for terrorists as well as footage of aides close to Osama. Almost all the video tapes were taken before the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. However, on one video a report of the attack was given.

A CNN correspondent acquired the videos after a 17-hour drive to an Afghanistan house where bin Laden had stayed, the network reported.

US officials said the tapes merely show the dangers posed by al- Qaeda and the possibility of terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction.—dpa