The United States announced on Monday that it had killed Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike in Afghanistan, ending a 21-year manhunt for the terrorist leader who played a key role in the September 11, 2001, attacks. who took command. of Al Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden.
The assassination of al-Zawahri, one of the world’s most wanted and feared terrorists, is considered a major victory for the Biden administration.
But the strike has also raised questions about the terrorist leader’s presence in Afghanistan, a year after President Biden withdrew US troops from the country, paving the way for the Taliban to retake control. Here’s what we know so far about the attack, who al-Zawahri was, and the ramifications of his assassination.
What do we know about the attack?
Al-Zawahri was killed by the CIA in an early morning drone strike in the Afghan capital Kabul last weekend, US officials said. He was targeted by a house in the Sherpur area, an affluent downtown neighborhood that once housed dozens of Western embassies and is now home to some senior Taliban officials.
Mr Biden said in a nationwide speech from a White House balcony that he had authorized the strike two days earlier. “Now justice has been done and this terrorist leader is no more,” he said.
The operation to kill al-Zawahri had been going on for months. US intelligence agencies found the hiding place where he had gone into hiding earlier this year after intelligence sources learned that his family had moved there. The CIA then monitored his movements until they received clearance for the attack, targeting him at a balcony with two Hellfire missiles, officials said.
US officials said no one else was killed in the attack, including members of his family or civilians nearby. Taliban security forces have restricted access to the blast site and there is no independent confirmation yet that no civilians have been killed.
Who was Ayman al-Zawahri?
Al-Zawahri, who was murdered at age 71, was an Egyptian-born physician — a surgeon who had committed a violent revolution at age 15, when he helped form a militant cell that attempted to destroy the Egyptian overthrow the government.
He emerged as a master of terrorism and was widely regarded as the architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
Many counter-terrorism experts regarded him as the intellectual backbone of Al Qaeda. Al-Zawahri was Bin Laden’s personal physician. The men became allies and pooled their resources to create an instrument of mass murder to harm the Western powers and governments they supported. Al-Zawahri provided the political insight and leadership; Bin Laden provided money, prestige and charisma.
The legacy of their efforts took an uncertain turn 11 years ago after bin Laden was killed in a raid by a US Navy SEAL team in Pakistan. Many believed that Al Qaeda would not survive his absence. But al-Zawahri took the mantle and managed to keep the group’s disparate global franchises together, even with the rise of the Islamic State militant group and as Al Qaeda branches in Yemen and the Sahel region of West Africa exercised more independence and authority, officials said.
What was he doing in Afghanistan?
The attack on al-Zawahri is the first known counter-terrorism attack in Afghanistan since Biden withdrew US troops nearly a year ago, nearly two decades after the United States invaded the country to oust al Qaeda.
Officials have said al-Zawahri returned to Afghanistan earlier this year after US troops withdrew.
Al-Zawahri was long believed to have lived in Pakistan. Its safe haven in Kabul is indicative of Al Qaeda’s continued use of facilities, homes, buildings and connections between Afghanistan and its neighbor.
Al Qaeda had a strong presence in the country when the Taliban last ruled it – the main reason the US invaded in 2001, after the September 11 attacks.
For much of the war, Qaeda fighters were largely seen as battlefield advisers to their rebellious brethren and experts in roadside bombing and suicide bombing.
But some Taliban factions had closer ties to the terrorist organization than others — especially the Haqqani network, whose senior leadership helped bin Laden during the Soviet-Afghan war.
In his speech on Monday, Biden said the assassination of al-Zawahri reaffirmed his commitment to continue counter-terrorism operations, despite his decision to remove US troops from Afghanistan.
“I have made the decision that after 20 years of war, the United States no longer needs thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who want to harm us,” he said. “And I promised the American people that we would continue to conduct effective counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We did that.”
Didn’t the Taliban promise to cut ties with Al Qaeda?
In February 2020, a deal was signed between the United States and the Taliban, the Doha Agreement.
The agreement promised the withdrawal of all NATO troops from Afghanistan, partly on condition of a Taliban commitment to stop groups like Al-Qaida from using Afghanistan as a base for attacks on the West.
Western officials hoped the deal would sever ties between the Taliban and international terrorist networks.
Although the Taliban have repeatedly said they are adhering to Doha’s terms, analysts have warned that groups including Al Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or the Pakistani Taliban, have found refuge in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over last year. took over power.
In June, a United Nations report warned that al-Qaeda had found “more freedom of action” in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power. The report noted that al-Qaeda leaders may have lived in Kabul and that an increase in public statements by al-Zawahri suggested he was able to lead more effectively after the takeover.
Al-Zawahri’s presence in Kabul will only question the Taliban’s commitment to their end of the peace agreement.
How have the Afghans reacted to the strike?
The Taliban strongly condemned the drone attack on Tuesday, calling it a “violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” but did not confirm or comment on the reported assassination of al-Zawahri.
“Such actions are a repeat of the failed experiences of recent years and are against the interests of the US, Afghanistan and the region,” a top Taliban official, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement.
The attack, in a busy neighborhood, alarmed citizens across Kabul, who reacted with anger and helplessness. Nearly a year after the Taliban took power, their country is on the brink of economic collapse.
“I wish we had this power to defend our country,” said Ezatullah, a 29-year-old from Logar province who had traveled to Kabul to get his marriage license and whose full name is being withheld for security reasons.
“People can’t show any reaction or anger because they can’t say what they want and they have economic problems,” he said. “Everyone is busy looking for a piece of bread for themselves.”
Munir, 57, who lost his job after the Taliban came to power and whose full name is also being withheld, said al-Zawahri’s presence in Kabul was a clear indication that the Doha agreement had been broken.
“The violation of the Doha Agreement is at the expense of the Afghan people; the Afghan people are too weak to respond to the attacks,” he said, adding that the Afghan people “have always been victims of foreign and domestic policies.”
Christina Goldbaum, Yaqoob Akbary and Thomas Gibbons-Neff reporting contributed.
