Bin Laden in a video grab of undated footage from the Internet. (Reuters)

Washington, July 15 (Reuters): Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden praises martyrdom as a weapon and a path to glory for Muslims in a video that CNN yesterday said was intercepted before it was to appear on radical Islamist websites.

CNN, which noted it could not verify the authenticity of the 40-minute video and had translated it from Arabic into English, said on its website there was no indication of where or when the footage had been shot.

For several weeks, radical Islamist websites have proclaimed there would be “good news soon from Sheikh Osama bin Laden”.

The news network said the video contained old clips but concluded it had been compiled in the last four weeks.

The environment in which bin Laden is shown speaking is similar to that on releases made before the 9/11 suicide attacks on the US by al Qaida militants in 2001.

Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor for Arab affairs, said bin Laden appears in only a 50-second portion of the video in which he asserts that Prophet Mohammed had wanted to be a martyr.

“What is this status that the best of mankind wished for himself?” CNN said bin Laden asked rhetorically. “He wished to be a martyr. He himself said: ‘By Him in whose hands my life is! I would love to attack and be martyred’.”

“This glorious prophet who was inspired by God summarised this entire life by these words. He wished upon himself this status. Happy is one who was chosen by God as a martyr,” bin Laden said, according to the CNN translation of his remarks.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, named as al Qaida’s new commander in Afghanistan in May, also appears in the video, praising fighters ready to die for the cause of jihad, or holy war.

The video is a compilation of documentary footage and testimony by fellow militants praising fallen Islamists.

CNN did not say how the footage had been intercepted.

Bin Laden was wearing army fatigues and appeared to be addressing followers.