WAR ON TERROR

Al-Jazeera: Al-Qaida tape urges Musharraf's removal



Aljazeera has aired an audiotape of Usama bin Ladin's spokesman calling on Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf.

Ayman al-Zawahiri said Musharraf helped the United States to topple the Taliban government in Afghanistan in the October 2001 invasion - support that killed thousands of innocents in the war-torn country.

During the broadcast on Sunday, the al-Qaida spokesman also claimed the Pakistani president was seeking to recognise Israel and send troops to Iraq in an attempt to gain full American approval.

"Musharraf ... is seeking to send Pakistani forces to Iraq so that they, rather than American soldiers, are killed and so that they kill Muslims in Iraq and enable America to control Muslim lands."