Troops cleared the final clutch of diehard extremists from the Red Mosque after two days of intense fighting that left at least 73 rebels and nine soldiers dead and turned the heart of the capital into a battleground.

"The bodies will be fingerprinted and photographed for identification and investigation," a security official said. Authorities want to find out if any of the militants are foreigners, the official told AFP.

Leader of the militants, radical cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was among those killed in the storming which followed a week-long standoff with the military.

Ghazi and students at the mosque, which houses a female madrasa, had been involved in an aggressive Taliban-style campaign for Islamic law in the capital, including the kidnapping of seven Chinese accused of prostitution.

The clearing of the compound came as al-Qaeda posted an audiotape on the Internet calling on Pakistanis to revolt against Musharraf, branding Tuesday's storming "criminal aggression."

"If you do not revolt, Musharraf will annihilate you. Musharraf will not stop until he uproots Islam from Pakistan," said Ayman al-Zawahiri, the group's second-in-command.