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Not the usual news flash from Al-Qaeda but interesting though.
Source bbc.co.uk / World / South East Asia
Source bbc.co.uk / World / South East Asia
The deputy leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called on all Muslims and Islamic charities to help victims of the earthquake in Pakistan.
He was speaking on a videotape broadcast by the Arab satellite television channel, al-Jazeera.
More than 50,000 people have been killed and up to three million are homeless after the earthquake.
Zawahiri is behind only Osama bin Laden in the 22 Most Wanted Terrorists List announced by the US government in 2001.
He has a $25m bounty on his head.
He was reportedly last seen in the eastern Afghan town of Khost in October 2001, and went into hiding after the US-led attack overthrew the Taleban.
"We have learned with grief and sadness the news of the disaster that has befallen the Muslim people of Pakistan in the wake of the earthquake that hit Pakistan and Afghanistan," Zawahiri is seen as saying on the tape.
"I call on all Muslims in general and I call on all Islamic humanitarian associations in particular to move to Pakistan to provide help to their Pakistani brothers, and that they do it quickly." The statement is a departure from comments usually attributed to the al-Qaeda number two.
In previous statements he has issued threats and called on the United States to remove its troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.