BBC: After an unexplained absence of nearly three years, the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, has appeared once more on a 30-minute video posted on an Islamist website.
The last time he was seen in a video was in October 2004, in an address to the American electorate just before the US presidential elections.
Since then he has delivered an audio message in January 2006, again posted on Islamist websites.
Now this latest video message, released just before the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, will dispel the growing rumours that he has been dead for some time and remind both his followers and his enemies that the man with a $50m bounty on his head is still at large.
At first glance the 50-year old Osama Bin Laden, known to his fellow jihadists as Abu Abdullah, looks younger than he did in 2004.
Gone is the straggly, unkempt beard that was heavily flecked with grey.
Instead, his beard appears dark, thick and trimmed, although analysts have suggested that rather than being dyed, it may be actually false, and that to help avoid detection he is clean-shaven these days.
The al-Qaeda leader's face still looks tired and lined, as befits a fugitive who may well have to sleep in different locations almost every night, but it is not quite as gaunt or exhausted looking as it was three years ago.
His clean white turban or, 'imma, is the same and Bin Laden wears a traditional white Saudi thaub - a long-sleeved shirt that extends all the way down below the knees.
Over this he is seen wearing a cream-coloured bisht - a cloak worn by respected sheikhs, tribal elders and religious leaders in the Arab world. Trimmed Bin Laden in media-savvy war (more) By Frank Gardner
Mark Alexander
