'Mini-bins' follow Osama's footsteps

DUBAI - Hamza bin Osama bin Laden read poetry and his brother Mohammad carried a rocket launcher near the wreckage of what the Taleban said was a downed United States helicopter.

The two were among four youths shown in footage from Afghanistan by Qatar's al-Jazeera television, which identified them as sons of Osama bin Laden - Hamza, Mohammad, Khaled and Laden.

Against a backdrop of metal wreckage, Hamza grabbed the attention of several masked gunmen as he recited a poem in Arabic hailing the Afghan capital, Kabul, and praising Taleban leader "our emir Mullah Mohammad Omar, symbol of manhood and pride".

Al-Jazeera said the four were among a group of fighters inspecting a site where the Taleban regime claimed it had downed a US helicopter in Ghazni province. The Pentagon has denied an aircraft was downed. One gunman taunted US troops to come to Afghanistan as he showed bin Laden's sons a picture of US soldiers.

"You see. They are commandos? They are a superpower only in Hollywood and in films. Their heroes are only mythical like Rambo and they won't come on the land of Afghanistan."

- REUTERS

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