The Arab television network, Al-Jazeera, has aired videotape of what it says are al-Qaida fighters as they trained for the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The videotape aired Thursday, just days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks. It shows al-Qaida militants practicing martial arts, firing machine guns and shadow boxing at a training camp in a mountainous area.

Osama bin Laden appears in the tape, which does not have sound.

Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, is claiming that the videotape is the first time al-Qaida fighters have been seen preparing for the September 11th attacks.

Nearly 3,000 people died when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a field in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.