For the first time, amplified spontaneous emission of Al ions was observed in a recombining plasma produced by a low‐power driving laser of only 2 joules. This lasing was achieved by sharply focusing a pumping glass laser (5 ns FWHM) to a line 40 &mgr;m wide and 12 mm long onto a slab target. The spectral lines (time integrated in the 5–50 nm region were recorded on Kodak SWR plates with a flat‐field‐type grazing incidence spectrograph which axially viewed the plasma at a distance (z) of 0.8 mm from a target surface with a spatial resolution of 200 &mgr;m. The measured gain coefficients are 3.4, 4.5, 3.4 and 3.5 for the 10.57 nm 3d–5f and 15.47 nm 3d–4f transitions in Al XI and for the 12.35 nm 3d–5f and 17.78 nm 3d–4f transitions in Al X, respectively. The gain was observed in large area of 500 &mgr;m ×600 &mgr;m around z=0.8 mm. As Al XI line emissions continue during about 6 ns (FWHM), soft‐X‐ray laser resonator is expected to be effective. The electron temperatures in the plasma in the neighborhood of the target was estimated by the filter absorption method to be 400±100 eV, which is hot enough to produce Al11+ions with high density. this result can pave the way to a low‐power‐pumped X‐ray laser.