ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistani forces combing through the Red Mosque have found the bodies of at least 73 militants, an army spokesman said Wednesday.
Forces were almost finished searching the many rooms of the complex for unexploded grenades, booby traps and other weaponry.

Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said the first phase, which focused on clearing the area of militants and ensuring innocent women and children were not inside, was finished and the second phase, the combing operation, was about to end.

Arshad said earlier “the whole area has to be sanitized” before anyone can enter the compound because “we don’t want unexploded grenades or mines or any other explosives lying around.”

Arshad declined to comment on the number of militant corpses found inside the mosque, stressing the need to clear the entire complex before discussing those exact figures.

Violence erupted at the mosque on July 3 when about 150 militant Islamic students attacked a police checkpoint close to the mosque. Security forces surrounded the mosque compound after the pro-Taliban militants took refuge inside.

Government troops began a final assault on the complex early Tuesday after talks to end the siege peacefully, failed.

Eight Pakistan commandos were killed in Tuesday’s raid, Arshad said.

Pakistani officials said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the radical Islamic cleric who led the stand-off, was among the dead.

In a videotaped statement, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command, condemned the raid, calling it an act of “criminal aggression” by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

“Musharraf and his hunting dogs have rubbed your honor in the dirt of the service of the Crusaders and the Jews, and if you don’t retaliate for your honor, Musharraf won’t spare any of you, and won’t stop until he eradicates Islam from Pakistan.”

He tells Pakistani Muslims their salvation “is only through jihad.”

“Rigged elections will not save you, politics will not save you, and bargaining, bootlicking, negotiations with the criminals and political maneuvers will not save you.”

It was the second Zawahiri tape in as many days. On Tuesday, his message condemned Queen Elizabeth II for awarding a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, the author of “Satanic Verses,” and warned new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that more attacks in Britain could be forthcoming.

CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of either statement.

Musharraf is expected to address the nation in a televised appearance Wednesday, said Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao.

CNN’s Syed Mohsin Naqvi said anti-government rallies are expected in the capital Thursday to protest the government’s handling of the Red mosque siege but that public reaction has been mixed. Naqvi said many people in Islamabad and surrounding areas supported the government’s decision to storm the mosque compound and end the standoff.

More than 1,200 people — mainly students from the mosque’s two Islamic schools — fled the compound during the siege. On Tuesday a total of 86 people came out of the mosque’s madrassa — or Islamic school. That number included 27 women and three children who Arshad said were rescued “from the clutches of the militants.”
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Gunfire and explosions erupted moments after an announcement from the government’s chief negotiator that negotiations to end the standoff had failed.

“After 11 hours of negotiations, we are deeply disappointed that the talks did not succeed,” former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said.

Ghazi said “no” to every offer from the government, according Hussain. Ghazi and the militants with him refused to surrender, saying they would prefer martyrdom.

In an interview with CNN’s Nic Robertson last year, Ghazi expressed his disdain for Musharraf, calling him “a dictator.”

“He’s an agent of the United States,” Ghazi said in the September interview. “Although he says that Pakistan (is) first … he doesn’t mean it.

“He is doing all kind of … things against the Pakistanis just to please America.”
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Ghazi’s brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz — the mosque’s top cleric — was captured last week while trying to slip out of the Red Mosque disguised in a woman’s burqa.

The Pakistani government has been investigating the mosque’s activities and tensions had been simmering for months between authorities and students blamed for a string of recent kidnappings of civilians, Chinese nationals and Pakistani police.