Zawahri praises Taliban in new audio tape

Al Arabiya said the date of the tape, which it said it had just obtained, could not be determined and made no mention of recent events.

The speaker on the tape, who sounded like earlier recordings attributed to Zawahri, said: "Muslims ... still control large parts of Eastern and Southern Afghanistan and are carrying out a consistent guerrilla warfare against the crusaders and the apostates."

The satellite television aired only a brief portion of the tape, which appeared to be of a poorer audio quality than other recordings attributed to Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command.

Bin Laden and Zawahri have eluded capture since US-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States blamed on al-Qaeda.