Bin Laden taunts US on 9/11
2007-09-11 11:02
New York - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden eulogised one of the September 11 hijackers in a video released on Tuesday's sixth anniversary of the attacks that still traumatise the United States.
As Americans remembered the almost 3 000 people killed, attempted bomb attacks and security alerts kept the world on alert. One bomb was disarmed in Ankara and German police launched a major operation at a US military base after receiving threats.
The al-Qaeda leader was seen in a still image on the new video in which he gives a commentary praising hijacker Walid al-Shehri, CNN television reported.
Al-Shehri was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first jet to crash into the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11 2001.
IntelCentre, a US-based organisation that monitors Islamic militant websites, said it had a copy of the video which lasts 47 minutes and does not include moving images of Bin Laden.
IntelCentre said the video is titled: "The Wills of the Heroes of the Raids on New York and Washington, The Will of the Martyr (As We See Him) Abu Mus'ab Walid al-Shehri, With a Forward by Sheikh Osama bin Laden."
In a tape released on Friday, Bin Laden mocked the United States as "weak" and threatened to escalate the war in Iraq.
News of the latest video emerged before the United States was to hold ceremonies to remember the dead from New York's Twin Towers, the US Defence Department headquarters in Washington and a hijacked plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
Police 'averted a possible catastrophe'
Also on the anniversary, Turkish police defused a powerful bomb hidden under a bus in central Ankara where a link to September 11 was immediately made.
The Turkish capital's governor, Kemal Onal, said the bomb was hidden under a bus in a car park. "The meticulous work of the police averted a possible catastrophe," he told journalists.
German police launched a major operation at the Spangdahlem US military airport after US forces received threats by telephone, police said.
The base received an anonymous call on Monday but a police spokesperson said could have been a hoax.
In New York, where 2 749 people were killed when two hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Centre, rescue workers were to read out the names of the dead in a solemn ceremony.
Unlike in past years, most of the ceremony will be held at a park near Ground Zero, the area where the Twin Towers once stood, and not on the site, where a memorial and other new buildings are being constructed.
In what has become an annual ritual, the reading of the names will pause for four moments of silence to mark the exact times that the planes hit the towers and when the massive buildings collapsed into piles of rubble and dust.
Church bells are to toll at 12:46 GMT to mark the moment that Flight 11, crashed into the North Tower.
Lower profile event
Relatives of those killed will then be able to descend a long ramp into the World Trade Centre site to lay flowers and pause momentarily.
The ceremony is a lower profile event than past commemorations. Last year, President George W Bush laid a wreath at the site and made a televised address to the nation.
Bush, who this year called for Americans to mark the attacks with memorial services and candlelight vigils, was to attend a remembrance service in Washington and observe a moment of silence at the White House.
Near Ground Zero, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was to introduce the commemorations.
"It will be a solemn occasion for remembrance and renewal, a day for us to reflect on those we lost," he said ahead of the ceremony.
His predecessor, Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani, will also deliver a reading, sparking criticism from some of the families of those killed, given his presidential ambitions.
Giuliani has made much of his role as mayor in the aftermath of the attacks, but firefighters especially have criticised the city's response to the disaster and have accused Giuliani of making political capital out of the attacks.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, is also due to take part in the ceremony, reading the names of the dead.
In the evening, a "Tribute in Light" is to project two massive beams of light into the night sky above Ground Zero to symbolise the collapsed towers.
In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where hijackers brought down United Airlines Flight 93 in a field after a passenger uprising, tributes were to be held to honour the 40 passengers and crew killed.
In Washington, Defence Secretary Robert Gates was to lead a memorial ceremony for the 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 flew into the Pentagon.
- AFP