On the 25th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks, al-Qaida’s official media wing, As-Sahab, has released a propaganda video featuring the first-ever footage of Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of Osama bin Laden. The video’s release has drawn scrutiny from intelligence analysts, primarily because Hamza was reported to have been killed in a US counterterrorism operation along the Afghan-Pakistan border around 2019.The 50-minute-long video titled “A Quarter Century of the 11 September Raids” also features unseen images of slain AQ chief Ayman Al Zawahiri. The outfit has not acknowledged his death to date or issued its customary funeral eulogy. The video aims to propagate the ideological doctrine associated with the current outfit chief, Saif al-Adl, with the Bin Laden name aimed at recruitment.Intriguingly, the video opens not with international operations, but with historical footage from the Sept 2014 al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent attack on the Karachi naval dockyard. Intelligence sources noted that prioritising this regional operation underscores the influence of Pakistani terrorists within both al-Qaida’s central leadership and its propaganda apparatus.Visually, the footage, they said, was meticulously staged to evoke a sense of ideological nostalgia. Hamza appears multiple times in the footage, seated against a stark, cracked mud wall, clad in a traditional white turban with an assault rifle propped beside him. “The deliberate choice of staging serves a clear dual purpose: establishing Hamza’s authority as his father’s successor while invoking the classic visual identity of early global jihadism,” said a source.
