Tape 'shows 11 September hijacker'

The speaker talked of killing Americans

An Arabic TV channel has broadcast a tape that appears to show one of the 11 September hijackers reading out his last will and testament.

The Qatari-based Al Jazeera satellite channel, which made a name for itself worldwide last year by broadcasting statements by Osama Bin Laden, also showed undated, previously unseen clips of the al-Qaeda militant leader and one of his top deputies.

The channel identifies the hijacker as Ahmad Al-Haznawi who was on Flight 93 which crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

It is not clear when or where the films were made

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld played down the tape, saying it appeared, on first evidence, to be a compilation of "somewhat dated" clips.

And UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described it as "nothing to write home about".

According to Al-Jazeera, the footage - which it says it checked thoroughly before broadcast - shows for the first time that the hijackers knew they were on a suicide mission.

Al-Haznawi is shown dressed in fatigues with an image of the World Trade Center in flames in the background.

"Lord I regard myself as a martyr for you so accept me as such," he is heard to say.

"The time of humiliation and enslavement is over and the time has come to kill the Americans on their own turf."

An official at Al Jazeera said that the recorded statement did not mention al-Qaeda or the 11 September attacks.

The channel also aired a brief clip of Bin Laden squatting beside his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, as al-Zawahri praises the actions of the bombers.

"Those 19 brothers who went out and worked and sacrificed their lives for God, God granted this conquest that we enjoy today," he said.

Tape mystery

There is confusion as to when the tapes were made.

Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Hilal, said the excerpts were from an hour-long video, complete with narration and graphics, delivered by hand to the station's offices in Doha, Qatar, a week ago.

The station believes the statements it contains were recorded in the former Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, six months before the attacks on New York and Washington.

But the video appeared to have been compiled recently, Mr Hilal added, pointing out that its narrator at one point refers to the March 27-28 Arab League summit as coming up shortly.

Al Jazeera said that it would air the tapes in full on Thursday.