WASHINGTON - Al-Qaeda will release a third video marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, this time showing its top leader in Afghanistan, US monitoring groups said Wednesday.
After releasing two videos featuring Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in recent days, the terror network will now show a video "presenting reasons and motives for the attacks on New York and Washington," the SITE Intelligence Group said in a press release.
The new video will show Al-Qaeda's chief in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said, said SITE, which monitors extremist websites.
The tape also features a montage of images showing the burning World Trade Center towers in New York and individuals such as Saudi King Abdullah, SITE said.
Another US-based monitoring group, IntelCenter, said it expected the video to be released by Al-Qaeda within 72 hours.
IntelCenter said the new video's upcoming release was announced by Al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab.
Al-Qaeda released videos featuring Bin Laden on Friday and Tuesday, on the sixth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
Bin Laden more popular than Musharraf in Pakistan
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is more popular in Pakistan than President Pervez Musharraf, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Nearly three-quarters of Pakistanis also oppose unilateral US military action against Islamic insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas, said the poll for Terror Free Tomorrow, a US-based organisation.
The survey "may help explain why Osama bin Laden remains at large in Pakistan and why both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have regrouped there," the group said in a statement.
It said it polled 1,044 people across Pakistan between August 18 and August 29.
Military ruler Musharraf, facing the biggest political crisis of his eight years in power and increasing pressure from Washington to tackle extremism, is the biggest in from the poll.
It said his approval rating was 38 percent behind 46 percent for bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks who is believed to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Bin Laden's ratings jumped to 70 percent in the North West Frontier Province.
Meanwhile only 13 percent of people said they would support US military strikes without Islamabad's cooperation -- a threat issued by several US officials in recent months.
But a majority back the Pakistani military, without US support, pursuing Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters inside Pakistan, the poll showed.
Terror Free Tomorrow is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation whose advisory board includes Republican US presidential candidate Senator John McCain, according to the group's website.
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