The United States killed Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike over the weekend in Afghanistan, Africa Daily News, New York has gathered.
A senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday that ‘over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan. The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties.’
Africa Daily News, New York reports that the early-morning strike in the heart of downtown Kabul over the weekend capped a 21-year manhunt for an Egyptian radical who more than anyone besides Bin Laden was deemed responsible for the deadliest foreign attack on the United States in modern times and never gave up targeting Americans.
The killing of Ayman al-Zawahri in Afghanistan — where planning for the Sept. 11 strikes began more than two decades ago, where the West once seemed poised to remake a fractured nation, and where the terrorist leader could feel comfortable again after the Taliban takeover last summer — speaks volumes about what America accomplished in a 20-year experiment. It also says a lot about where it failed.
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On one level, it was a reminder of how little has changed. The Taliban are once again in charge of the country. They were harboring the known leader of Al Qaeda, just as they were 21 years ago. He was comfortably established in a safe house there, so comfortable that his family was nearby, and he had routines to take in the sunshine.
The former top U.S. liaison to the Taliban called the strike a validation of the rationale for withdrawing from Afghanistan. Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as the special envoy for Afghanistan peace negations under Presidents Trump and Biden, called the strike proof that ‘we can protect our interests against terror threats in Afghanistan without a large and expensive military presence there.’
An important question in the coming days will be what the strike means for the testy relations between the Taliban government and the United States. The U.S. claims that the Taliban violated the peace agreement by letting al-Zawahri into the country. The Taliban claims the U.S. violated the peace agreement by conducting a strike. The U.S. insists it will continue to strike against terrorism targets, but less clear is if the Taliban will allow in more Qaeda leaders or if it will seek to push them from the country.
