Al-Qaida tape exhorts Pakistan to depose chief

CAIRO - A tape purportedly recorded by Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 figure in the al-Qaida terror group, called Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a "traitor" Thursday and urged people to overthrow his government.

The pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a seven-minute excerpt from a tape it received Thursday. Its authenticity could not immediately be verified, but the speaker sounded like Zawahri and made references to the Islamic holy book, the Koran, which is known to be Zawahri's style.

The speaker also called for a military uprising in Pakistan.

"Musharraf seeks to stab the Islamic resistance in Afghanistan in the back," the speaker said.

"Every Muslim in Pakistan should work hard to get rid of this client government, which will continue to submit to America until it destroys Pakistan."

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said the government has no immediate comment on the tape. When a Zawahri tape released in September called for Musharraf's overthrow, the government said it would not be deterred in its pursuit of terrorists.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he heard news reports about the tape and said if it was authentic, the speaker "is clearly an individual who is very high-ranking and is capable of, and has in the past killed innocent men, women and children. And so one has to recognize that."

The tape comes as Pakistani troops are in the second week of a campaign along the Afghan border in South Waziristan, a longtime stronghold of Islamic militants from al-Qaida, Afghanistan's Taliban and their Pakistani supporters.

Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said Thursday that more than 50 terrorists have been killed in the operation. More than 150 suspects have been captured, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The speaker did not mention Israel's Monday morning assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, which suggests the tape was recorded before then.

Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said the Qatar-based channel received the tape Thursday, but he declined to reveal how.

In the United States, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the CIA is reviewing the tape for authenticity.

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