US killed Al Qaeda leader Al-Zawahiri

 The U.S. killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. what now for Taliban?


The militant group's sheltering of another Al Qaeda leader will hinder their quest for international legitimacy and much-needed aid.


The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in downtown Kabul was a bitter blow not just to Al Qaeda, but also to the Taliban, whose vow not to harbor dangerous international terrorists has been exposed just short of a year after the militant group returned to power in Afghanistan.


Zawahiri, who went from being a young doctor in Cairo to becoming Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden’s former deputy and one of the masterminds of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was killed in a U.S. drone strike over the weekend. He was living with his family in a Taliban-supported safe house in an upscale neighborhood in the Afghan capital at the time of the strike. 


Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his presence there a gross violation of a 2020 deal in which the Taliban promised the United States not to allow terror groups to use Afghan soil to threaten the security of America and its allies.



How could Al Qaeda respond after U.S. kills top leader?

Two decades after a U.S.-led invasion toppled the previous Taliban regime, their sheltering of another Al Qaeda leader will hinder the hard-line Islamic group’s quest for international legitimacy and much-needed aid, while raising new questions about the status of the global war on terror. 


Al-Zawahiri, 71, escaped U.S. forces when they invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and his whereabouts were long unknown as he took over as Al Qaeda leader and continued to call for attacks against the U.S. and its allies. According to two senior Taliban leaders, the man who was one of America’s most-wanted fugitives moved to the Afghan capital some five or six months after the U.S. withdrawal from the country.


For some in Afghanistan, sheltering him is proof that the Taliban were never serious about cutting ties to Al Qaeda and jihadist networks. 


One doctor in Kabul, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said it raised concerns that his home country will once again be turned into a safe haven for international terrorism. “Afghanistan is always forgotten by the U.S. and the international community — it is in a very tough situation,” he said.


The episode “shows the real face of the Taliban to the world,” a former police officer in Kabul said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.


“I don’t think anyone in the United States thought they could entirely trust the Taliban and their assurances under the 2020 deal,” said Raffaello Pantucci, a counterterrorism expert and a senior associate fellow at theRoyal United Services Institute think tank in London.

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