Al-Qaida supports Pakistani militants

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 15 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a new audio message urged Pakistanis to support Islamic militants in their country against the United States.

In the message, released Wednesday on Islamic Web sites, Zawahiri, al-Qaida's second in command after Osama bin Laden, said God will punish those who do not provide such backing to the militants, CNN reported.

"I believe that every honest and sincere Muslim in Pakistan should seriously contemplate ... Pakistan's present state and expected future because the blatant American crusader interference in Pakistan's affairs ... has reached such an extent that it now poses a grave danger to

Pakistan's future and very existence," he was quoted as saying.

"If we stand by passively without offering due support to the Mujahedin (Islamic guerrillas) … we shall not only contribute to the destruction of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we shall also deserve the painful punishment of almighty God."

Both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Islamic militants are under attack from the Pakistani military and U.S.-led NATO forces.

In Pakistan, while its military is hunting down the Taliban, missile attacks from suspected U.S. drones in Afghanistan have been targeting militant hideouts, the CNN report said.