The US has killed al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in his safe house in downtown Afghan capital Kabul. US President Joe Biden in a video message confirmed al-Zawahiri’s death and underlined that no family member of the slain terrorist was harmed during the operation.
At the time of strike, al-Zawahiri, his wife, his daughter and her children were living in the house, a source told Harici. The house is located in Sherpur area in Kabul’s Police District 10th, and surrounded by luxury buildings that were previously owned by the top government officials and political leaders. However, after the takeover of Kabul on August 15 last year, Taliban’s interior minister Sirajudin Haqqani and some other key officials from the Haqqani network seized key residential plots in Sherpur.
Additionally, the house where the US targeted and killed al-Zawahiri is located near the residents of former defense minister Bismillah Mohammadi. And the same exact home was used by the former national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib’s office to welcome special foreign guests.
Apparently, it was not a complicated operation and the CIA was able to target the house precisely to target the leader of al-Qaeda. US officials said “Hellfire” missiles from a drone killed the 71-year-old al-Zawahiri after he appeared in the balcony of his safe house on Sunday morning. Indeed, it was the biggest blow to the group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 in Pakistan – al-Zawahiri was his deputy.
Who was al-Zawahiri – a briefing!
An Egyptian national, al-Zawahiri was born on June 19, 1951, in Giza in the African nation. He took power as al-Qaeda chief after his predecessor Osama bin Laden was killed by a US raid in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in May 2011. Like his boss, bin Laden who obtained a degree in business and economic as well civil engineering, al-Zawahiri was also highly educated and he served a s surgeon in the Egyptian army for almost three years. In 1981, al-Zawahiri as young as 30 years old was arrested among hundreds other over his alleged role in assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
Furthermore, in 1998, al-Zawahiri founded Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and soon become a close ally with al-Qaeda and jointly carried several deadly attacks against US, including August 1998 bombings that targeted the US embassies in Dar es Salaam “Tanzania” and Nairobi “Kenya”, as well as the 9/11 attacks, among several others – al-Zawahiri had a $25 million bounty on his head.
At the same time, al-Zawahiri had a strong loyalty with the US-backed most powerful Syrian rebel in Syria and he was ordered bombings in Aleppo and dictated strategy and was a hero in Idlib province which they control under NATO’s watch. “Now that the dirty war’s over al-Zawahiri is expendable,” Max Blumenthal, editor at The Grayzone News said in a tweet post.
Zawahiri also behind Aleppo attack in 2012, in which 70 Syrian government personnel were killed and helped transform the city’s eastern districts into a “base for the NATO-backed dirty war” – when Aleppo was liberated in 2016, the US accused Syria of genocide at the UN.
Mr. Biden said that al-Zawahiri carved “a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests.” In his brief remarks from the White House, Biden said “justice has been delivered.”
US violated Doha agreement
Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has confirmed an airstrike conducted by a US drone in Kabul, but said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan views it as a clear violation of international principles and the Doha agreement.
“Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the US, Afghanistan and the region. Repeating such actions will damage the existing opportunities,” Mujahid warned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Taliban leader said that al-Zawahiri spent most of his time in the mountains in Musa Qala district in Helmand province. The official said that al-Zawahiri moved back to Kabul and was stationed in a safe place a few months after Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August. The official also said that al-Zawahiri had several movements to Pakistan after the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.
In January 2006, CIA-operated Predator drones fired missiles to target a house in Pakistan Bajaur region based on reports that al-Zawahiri was visiting. However, the incident took the lives of at least 18 villagers, and there was no report about him.
Killing al-Zawahiri raised many eye-brows
Moreover, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement said; “by hosting and sheltering the leader of al-Qaeda in Kabul, the Taliban grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries.”
The killing of al-Zawahiri raised many eye-brows and doubts whether all the Taliban top officials had information that he was transformed to Kabul. Many of them might have known, but many might have not.
A source confirmed to Harici that a number of top Taliban officials have left Kabul to Kandahar province on Monday for a meeting with the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada. They are discussing their official position regarding the death of al-Zawhari.
