Bin Laden praises martyrdom in video

DUBAI: Al-Qaeda's fugitive chief Osama bin Laden, who has not been heard from for more than a year, appeared in an undated videotape posted on the Internet on Sunday, in which he praises martyrdom.   

"The happy (person) is the one chosen by Allah to be a martyr," Bin Laden said in a short clip which was included in a videotape titled "Winds of Martyrdom", and carried by the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group.   

SITE said the footage was old, but did not give an estimated date. The images showed showed the Western world's most wanted man, wearing an Afghan-style hat, military fatigues and a greying beard, standing outdoors against a background of a hill and shrubs.   

Bin Laden was last heard of in an audiotape posted on the Internet in July 2006, in which he accused Iraqi Shiites of waging "genocide" against the minority Sunnis.  He had also warned in an audio message posted a day earlier that jihad, or holy war, would go on in Iraq despite the killing of the then Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.   

"The last Prophet (of Islam, Mohammed)...wished to have died as a martyr," said Bin Laden in Sunday's video. It bore the symbol of the As-Sahab group, which usually produces audiovisual statements from Al-Qaeda's leadership.   

The videotape featured also messages from other Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, as well as testimonies by purported suicide bombers ahead of launching attacks in the war-torn country. This is the 63rd As-Sahab video to be released in 2007, according to the US-based intelligence institute IntelCenter.   

The US Senate on Friday doubled the bounty on bin Laden to 50 million dollars, reflecting frustration that the Al-Qaeda mastermind remains free and rising anxiety over possible future attacks.   

The vote followed a flurry of reports that the group behind the September 11 strikes in 2001 had rebuilt its safe haven, leadership and capacity to plot terror operations, and was trying to sneak operatives into the United States.   

Bin Laden has been on the run since US-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime after the 9/11 attacks. There have been repeated claims that he is hiding, along with the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in remote territory along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. But Pakistan has repeatedly denied the presence of bin Laden or Omar on its territory.   

In June, a leader of the ousted Taliban claimed that bin Laden was alive, saying that he received a letter of condolence from the fugitive leader following the death of his brother. "The latest proof Osama bin Laden is alive is that he has sent me a letter of condolences after my brother was martyred," Mansoor Dadullah said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television, referring to the Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed by US-led forces in May.   

He was last seen in a video released in October 2004, although in September last year Al-Jazeera broadcast previously unseen footage it said showed bin Laden and Al-Qaeda suicide hijackers preparing for the September 11 attacks. His right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian born surgeon regarded as the network's chief strategist frequently emerges in video or audio tapes to speak for Al-Qaeda.