Purported Zawahiri audiotape surfaces

An audiotape purportedly from al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was posted Friday on an Islamic Web site in which he read a poem praising "martyrs of holy war" in Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere. There was no indication of when the tape was made.

The tape made no mention of a Jan. 13 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting al-Zawahiri and killed four al Qaeda leaders. Al-Zawahiri was not believed to have been among those killed. If the tape is new and authentic, it would be the first statement by the al Qaeda deputy since the attack.

The 17-minute tape was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum a day after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden released his first audiotape in more than a year, threatening new attacks in the United States and offering Americans a conditional truce.

The purported al-Zawahiri tape made no statement, and instead the voice on it was heard reading a long poem honoring "martyrs of jihad," or holy war.

He dedicated the poem to "all Muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen (holy warrior) brothers in Islam's fortified borderlines against the Zionist-Crusader campaign in Palestine and Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya, to the lions chasing the crusaders' gangs and hired hands in Afghanistan's mountains and valleys and its wounded capital, Kabul."

"I am honored to present this mujahideen poem, written by Maulai Muhibbullah al-Qandahari, who carried the pen and the sword and was known in the circles of scholars and the training camps and the battlefields of jihad," the speaker said.

He said it reminded him of colleagues who died in the jihadist cause, mentioning several by name � but not including any of the figures believed killed in the Pakistan strike. "I felt this poem was my poem ... because it lifted my cares and eased my tiredness," he said, "I was moved to share it with my fellow mujahideen."

The date of the recording could not be immediately determined, and it was not stated in the posting. The Arab news network Al-Arabiya, which aired a short part of the tape, said it was new but did not say what led it to that conclusion.

The Web forum where the tape was posted and other similar ones often carry statements from al Qaeda and other militant groups, but participants also often post old recordings.