Comment KABUL — The US drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri here early Sunday morning also dealt a humiliating blow to the Taliban regime, which had secretly harbored the aging extremist in its heartland. of the Afghan capital for months, but failed to keep him safe. Just as the Taliban were preparing to celebrate their first year in power later this month, the attack sparked a nationalist backlash against the beleaguered regime at home and jeering comments on social media calling for revenge against the United States. “If Zawahiri’s martyrdom is confirmed, then shame on you for not being able to protect the true hero of Islam,” an Afghan man named Ehsanullah tweeted in response to a statement early Tuesday from the Taliban’s chief spokesman that the al-Qaeda leader had been killed. in a US drone strike. The killing of al-Zawahiri, a hero for Islamist militant groups but a long-wanted terrorist in the West, has also crystallized the ongoing struggle between moderate and hardline factions within the Taliban regime. Several leaders of the hardline Haqqani network, long accused by US officials of directing high-profile terror attacks, hold powerful positions in the regime. Now, some Afghan and American analysts said, the drone strike could harden the Taliban and push the regime toward an open embrace of the extremist forces it pledged to renounce in the 2020 peace deal with the United States. “The Taliban are in deep political trouble now and will face pressure to retaliate. Their relationship with al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups remains very strong,” said Asfantiar Mir, an expert on Islamic extremism at the US Institute of Peace in Washington. “I think we have to prepare for an impact.” Mir noted that while Taliban officials had hoped to gain international recognition and access to more than $9 billion in assets pledged by the Biden administration, the group’s top religious leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, categorically stated at a national conference in May: they are in clash of civilizations with the West”. US kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in drone strike in Kabul There is deep-seated animosity here toward the United States, which has intensified since American troops withdrew last year and the war economy collapsed, leaving millions of Afghans jobless. When Afghan officials belatedly confirmed that a US drone had killed the al Qaeda leader after initially insisting the strike was a harmless rocket attack, many Afghans were outraged. “We already have so many concerns. For a whole year there are no jobs, no business, no activity. But at least the battle was over. The Taliban were in charge and there was good security,” said a resident of the Sherpur neighborhood where the drone struck, who gave his name as Hakimullah. “Now, all of a sudden, this attack happens and everyone is scared again.” Many Afghans seem to know little about al-Zawahiri or al-Qaeda. In part, that’s because so many of them were born after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which U.S. officials said were orchestrated by al-Zawahiri and his associates, and in part because al-Qaida fighters who joined their forces with the Taliban are Middle Easterners whose presence in Afghanistan has always been low-profile. What the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri means for al-Qaeda Until now, people here have been much more focused on the threat posed by a different Sunni Muslim extremist movement known as the Islamic State-Khorasan or ISIS-K. The group has in the past repeatedly bombed mosques, schools and other locations in Kabul, especially during the Shia Muslim festival of Muharram, which began this week. Among those most disillusioned by the turn of events are Afghan citizens who sought to forge working relationships with the new Taliban authorities, encouraging them to develop moderate and practical government policies rather than focusing solely on religion. Faiz Zaland, who teaches governance and political science at Kabul University, expressed frustration with the Taliban for failing to foresee the risks of bringing al-Zawahiri to the capital and worries that the US attack had doomed their chances of competing the moderate elements of the regime with hardline religious figures at the top. “The Taliban are stuck now and it’s their fault,” he said. “This will undermine their first year achievements and the people who care feel betrayed and scared.”
