Doubt grows over video 'evidence' that bin Laden survived US attacks

A British-based Islamic news agency claimed yesterday to have video footage of Osama bin Laden taken as recently as two months ago, suggesting the al-Qa'ida leader had survived the war in Afghanistan. But the claim was immediately downplayed by al-Jazeera, the leading Arabic-language television news station, which said the tape was old and proved nothing either way.

The Islamic agency, called Ansaar, released a 100-second clip of the video showing Mr bin Laden in a camouflage jacket and Afghan hat sitting outside a stone building. A tree and some hills in the background provide the only geographical markers.

In the clip, Mr bin Laden is shown speaking in generalities about the merits of martyrdom. Nothing about either his appearance or his words gave specific clues to the date the footage was shot.

"Concerning the situation we are in, we must praise Allah that he has allowed us to follow the path of [men who are among] the best of creation," Mr bin Laden reportedly says.

Ansaar said it had downloaded the clip from a CD-Rom which it received in Pakistan last week. The CD-Rom contained a password, which the agency managed to unlock. Ansaar said it believed the clip was shot in the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak in March. But Ibrahim Helal, editor-in-chief of the al-Jazeera satellite station that has broadcast several bin Laden videos in the past, said his network received the same tape three or four months ago and chose not to broadcast it because it offered nothing new.

Mr Helal said he thought the tape dated from last October, when Mr bin Laden was encouraging his followers to fight the Americans just as the Western coalition's war against the Taliban and al-Qa'ida was getting under way.

In Washington, officials also urged caution. Condoleezza Rice, the White House National Security Adviser, told a television interviewer: "I don't think we even know very much about the origins of this tape, so it's probably not wise to speculate."

The tape generated some initial excitement because it seemed to offer the first concrete evidence that Mr bin Laden was still alive.

But even the Ansaar agency admitted it was not sure exactly how recent it was.

"We can't verify or confirm it,'' said Imran Khan, an Ansaar journalist. "But bin Laden looks gaunt, thinner and whiter.''

A Pakistani official had given the tape to one of the agency's reporters in Islamabad about a month ago, Mr Khan said. "[The official] said the new section had been filmed in March, but we have no way of verifying that."