AL-QAEDA’S ideological leader urged Afghans yesterday to rise up against the British and US troops in Afghanistan as the coalition announced the deaths of four US soldiers.

The appearance of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, on a three-minute video provoked a stinging response from Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, who criticised both foreign militants in Afghanistan and the West’s strategy in the War on Terror.

The broadcast came amid the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. About 600 people have been killed since May and more than 1,000 have died so far this year.

“We can’t tolerate it for ever,” Mr Karzai said. “We want an end to this.”

He blamed the bloodshed on “foreign factors”, an echo of repeated complaints from Afghan officials that Pakistan is not doing enough to rein in Taleban and al-Qaeda militants whom they accuse of launching attacks from across the border.

The President also appeared to lay some blame for the escalation of violence with the conduct of the broader fight against extremism and urged a “thorough look” at the way the War on Terror is being pursued.

“That means the world should go where terrorism is nourished, where it is provided money and ideology . . . this war of terrorism should not be limited to Afghanistan.”

He added: “I strongly believe and I’ve conveyed my belief to the international community that we must engage strategically in disarming the terrorists by stopping their sources of money, training, equipment and motivation.”

His comments came after a call to civil war from the Egyptian al-Zawahiri, who was shown wearing his trademark white turban, an automatic rifle by his side.

“I am calling upon the Muslims in Kabul in particular and in all Afghanistan in general and for the sake of God to stand up in an honest stand in the face of the infidel forces that are invading Muslim lands,” he said.

The video is thought to have been recorded the day after a US convoy ploughed into civilians in Kabul, sparking riots that killed at least 20 on May 29.

It was the second video of al-Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding in the porous eastern border region with Pakistan, to be broadcast this month and his sixth message this year.

The tape appeared as US commanders announced the deaths of four American soldiers in the eastern province of Nuristan late on Wednesday.

The mountainous province of Nuristan, which measures 5,000 sq miles (12,450 sq km), has few roads and shares a largely unguarded 250-mile border with Pakistan.

Nato’s top commander in Afghanistan, Britain’s Lieutenant-General David Richards, dismissed the call to arms.

General Richards, who will take charge of the whole security mission in Afghanistan by the end of August with 25,000 troops under his command, told The Times that Afghans had no appetite for an uprising.

“I have spoken to the senior mullahs and they were absolutely clear that this call to arms is unjustified. They even think that people like Zawahiri are completely loopy,” he said.

There was also no intelligence at this stage of militant Iraqis coming to Afghanistan to pass on their advanced roadside bomb technology, he said.

About 11,000 coalition forces, including more than 3,000 British troops, are engaged in Operation Mountain Thrust in the southern provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar and Zabul to root out insurgents.

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