On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, al-Qaida’s official media wing, As-Sahab, has released a propaganda video featuring Hamza bin Laden, the son and reported designated heir of slain al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.
The release has drawn the attention of intelligence analysts because Hamza was reportedly killed in a US counterterrorism operation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border around 2019. The emergence of previously unseen footage has therefore raised questions over the circumstances surrounding his reported death.
The 50-minute video, titled A Quarter Century of the 11 September Raids, also contains previously unseen images of former al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The group has not officially acknowledged Zawahiri’s death or issued the customary funeral eulogy associated with the deaths of its senior leaders.
Analysts said the video appears intended to reinforce the ideology promoted by current al-Qaida chief Saif al-Adl, while using the Bin Laden family name as a potential recruitment tool.
The video opens notably with footage from the September 2014 attack on Karachi’s naval dockyard, carried out by al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent. Intelligence sources said the decision to prominently feature the regional operation could point to the continued influence of Pakistani militants within al-Qaida’s central leadership and propaganda network.
Hamza appears repeatedly in the footage, seated against a stark, cracked mud wall and wearing a traditional white turban, with an assault rifle positioned beside him.
According to an intelligence source, the carefully constructed imagery appears designed to evoke the visual style associated with the early years of global jihadist propaganda while portraying Hamza as a successor to his father.
The release comes at a significant moment for al-Qaida, as the organisation seeks to reinforce its ideological narrative and project continuity more than two decades after the September 11 attacks.
