Taped Call to Strike U.S. Tied to Bin Laden Aide

An audiotape purportedly by Al Qaeda’s second-in-command called on Muslim youths to strike the United States and its allies.

“The youth must not wait for anyone and must begin resisting from now -- and take experience and lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan and Chechnya,” the speaker said.

The tape, aired Friday by Arab satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, identified the speaker as Ayman Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born confidant of Osama bin Laden. A U.S. intelligence official said a technical analysis gave authorities “high confidence” that the voice was Zawahiri’s.

The date the audiotape was made could not be determined from the segments aired.

The tape called for attacks against Israel and the United States, in support of the Palestinian uprising. It urged young Muslims to fight on even if Al Qaeda leaders were killed.

“The interests of the Americans, British, Australians, French, Polish, Norwegians, South Koreans and Japanese are spread everywhere,” the speaker said. “We must not wait more ... or we will be devoured one country after the other.”

In response to the tape, South Korea today held an emergency meeting of its National Security Council and put its forces on high alert.

U.S. military installations in Korea went on a state of alert a week ago and implemented the tightest security measures seen here since the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. South Korea, the largest contributor of troops to Iraq after the United States and Britain, recently completed the deployment 2,800 soldiers to Irbil in northern Iraq.

They formally assumed military responsibility in a ceremony there Friday, and the Korean commander pledged to bring stability to the region.

Soldiers from the Zaytun unit unfurled their division flag at the base as a military band played at the ceremony attended by U.S. and British military representatives and Kurdish officials.