BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Bin Laden sons 'fighting with Taleban'

Al-Jazeera says the boys are Bin Laden's sons

The satellite news channel broadcast pictures of what it said were four young sons of the Saudi-born dissident.

The boys - named as Hamza, Mohammad, Khaled and Laden - can be seen picking over aircraft debris and handling guns.

The fighters say the wreckage is of an American helicopter shot down on Friday.

The Taleban say they have shot down two US helicopters, killing up to 50 American soldiers. The Pentagon has denied the claims.

The Taleban fighters and Bin Laden's sons were taking part in the search for a base allegedly set up by US forces in the central province of Ghazni, according to the report.

The footage shows the youngest of the four boys, identified by the TV station as Hamza, reciting a poem extolling Kabul "which emerges with its head held high" and praising the Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

One of the adult fighters in the group is seen telling the children in English that American soldiers were only strong in Hollywood films and not in real life.

Taleban spokesman Amir Khan Mutaqi told Al-Jezeera that the group had not found the alleged US air base.