Watch Floor Brief · Al-Qaeda
The biggest question surrounding Hamza bin Laden’s appearance in al-Qaeda’s new video is when his footage was filmed. We know the answer.
Al-Qaeda released a 52-minute propaganda video on September 10, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, under the title A Quarter Century After the September 11 Raids, Part One. “Raids” reflects al-Qaeda’s own framing of 9/11, while “Part One” signals that this was not intended to be a single release.
The video is built heavily around al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, but Hamza bin Laden appears in three separate sections, once near the beginning and twice near the end. Hamza filmed the content on August 13, 2021, at Jamia Umar Thalith, the former mud-brick madrasa of Taliban founder Mullah Omar in Sang-e-Sar, Zhari District, Kandahar Province. That was one day after Kandahar fell to the Taliban and two days before Kabul. Al-Qaeda has been sitting on this footage for more than five years.
The date matters for another reason. In 2019, President Trump announced that Hamza bin Laden had been killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation. Yet two years later, Hamza was recording video in Kandahar as the Taliban closed in on Kabul. The initial reporting surrounding his death was part of a deliberate deception effort that successfully misled the U.S. intelligence community. The footage from 2021 is therefore important not only because of when it was recorded, but because it shows how successfully al-Qaeda kept Hamza out of view.
Filmed as Afghanistan Was Falling
The timing changes how the video should be understood. Hamza was not looking back at the Taliban victory years later. He recorded the message as the Taliban was taking Afghanistan back. The former Afghan government was collapsing province by province, Kandahar had just fallen, and Kabul was next. Victory was imminent.
Senior Taliban leaders at the location at the time included Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, then head of the Taliban Military Commission and current Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, and Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. The group was discussing the approaching fall of Kabul and the security situation surrounding the capital.
Al-Qaeda could have released this footage as Kabul fell, around the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 a few weeks later, or after the final U.S. troops left Afghanistan. Instead, it held the material for more than five years and chose the 25th anniversary to begin releasing it. That decision is consistent with the way al-Qaeda has operated for decades. The organization has long demonstrated strategic patience.
What Hamza Is Saying
Hamza’s message makes three broad points. First, al-Qaeda continues to exist and he intends to follow the path established by his father. Second, he describes Islam as facing an all-out struggle in which its enemies have fought Muslims through religious, cultural, economic and ultimately military means. The third point is more important. Hamza says those who carried out jihad have seen its “result.” The video then shows the audience what al-Qaeda means.
It cuts to imagery connected to al-Shabaab in Somalia and then to Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, when Taliban fighters entered the Afghan Presidential Palace after the collapse of the government. Among those shown are Mawlawi Hamdullah Mukhlis and Qari Salahuddin Ayubi inside the Arg, speaking from the office previously occupied by President Ashraf Ghani.
The sequence is deliberate. Al-Qaeda is presenting Somalia and Afghanistan as evidence that persistence produces results. In Afghanistan, the message is straightforward: a movement can fight for decades, lose leaders and fighters, survive an enormous international military campaign and eventually watch its opponent leave. Twenty years after the U.S. entered Afghanistan following 9/11, the Taliban was back in Kabul.
That message has particular value for a younger audience. Al-Qaeda is no longer speaking primarily to the generation that watched the Twin Towers fall. For a 20-year-old recruit today, September 11 is history. The Taliban retaking Kabul happened while he was a teenager. Al-Qaeda is connecting those two moments. September 11 is the legacy. August 15 is the example it wants followers to remember.
Why Hamza’s Presentation Matters
The video also makes a point about continuity. It relies heavily on Osama bin Laden, but this is not simply another anniversary production built around a dead leader. By placing Hamza into the story, al-Qaeda is connecting its founding generation to what it wants followers to believe comes next.
Even the way al-Qaeda identifies Hamza is important. Osama bin Laden is described as the “Martyr of the Ummah,” followed by rahimahu Allah, meaning “may Allah have mercy on him.” Former senior al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid is similarly identified as “Sheikh Mujahid Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, rahimahu Allah.”
Hamza is identified differently: “Sheikh Mujahid Hamza bin Osama bin Laden.” Al-Qaeda knows its own conventions, and so does the audience it is speaking to. It is presenting Hamza as an active jihadist leader rather than placing him among its dead. According to al-Qaeda internal sources, Hamza currently serves as the group’s emir following his appointment by the senior shura on November 14, 2022.
Hamza has recorded several pieces of content over the last five years, including material filmed on other dates, and not even all of the footage from August 13 has been released. Taken together, that suggests sequencing. Al-Qaeda appears to be introducing Hamza in stages while holding additional material for later use. There is also a darker warning: some of that pre-filmed content is intended for release in connection with a major future attack against the U.S.
The Broader Message to the West
Hamza does direct a warning toward the West, though not as a detailed operational threat. His broader message is that al-Qaeda believes the U.S. and its intelligence services can be weakened over time. That fits with how the video presents the last 25 years. Al-Qaeda does not portray that period as a sequence of defeats, but as evidence that persistence can eventually work in its favor.
From the American perspective, the post-9/11 counterterrorism campaign killed al-Qaeda leaders, disrupted plots, dismantled networks and prevented another attack on the scale of September 11. Al-Qaeda tells the story differently. Its narrative begins with 9/11, moves through two decades of war, and ends with the Taliban back in the Afghan Presidential Palace after the U.S. left. Hamza is now being inserted into that timeline as part of what comes next.
Whether al-Qaeda can carry out the type of future attack it envisions is a separate question. What matters here is what this release tells us about the organization’s intentions.
Al-Qaeda did not simply produce another anniversary message. It reached back to one of the most consequential moments in its recent history, the retaking of its safe haven in Afghanistan, and released footage it had been holding for years. The filming date tells us when Hamza recorded it. The decision to release it now tells us something more important: how al-Qaeda intends to use its emir.