Egypt ? An audiotape from al-Qaida’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, was posted Friday on an Islamic Web site, but U.S. officials said the recording does not appear to have been made recently and may be several years old.

In the audiotape, al-Zawahri read a poem praising “martyrs of holy war” in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The tape made no mention of a Jan. 13 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting al-Zawahri and killed four al-Qaida leaders.

The CIA verified the voice as al-Zawahri following a technical analysis, an agency official said.

It was unclear when the recording was made, although the poem referred to Afghanistan martyrs in the period during Northern Alliance action against the Taliban that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the CIA official said.

The officials at two U.S. counterterror agencies who said the tape appeared old spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.