“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in Kabul,” the militants said in a statement, which used the name they chose for their unrecognized regime. The statement was released more than three days after a house was struck in the capital’s Sherpur district. At face value, the claim is extraordinary. It suggests the Taliban have little control over the heart of their capital, including the heavily guarded area frequented by some of their most elite leadership. It also implies that they have been unable to monitor or control a terrorist group whose regime was a key part of the 2020 deal with Washington that paved the way for US troops to withdraw and the Taliban to return to power. Under the Doha agreement, the Taliban promised the US that Afghanistan would not host terrorist groups that threatened the US and its allies. Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani told an Indian news outlet just two days before the drone attack that al-Qaeda was a “dead” organization with no presence in Afghanistan. However, US officials said the apartment where Zawahiri was killed had been rented by one of Haqqani’s aides. If the Taliban’s denial seems hardly plausible, it was perhaps the only way out of a political bind created by Zawahiri’s assassination. The Taliban are still seeking international recognition for their rogue regime, hoping it can ease an economic collapse by ending sanctions and freeing up funds for aid and operations. An aggressive response to Zawahiri’s death would not advance that cause. However, al Qaeda and its leadership are revered by many within the group’s ranks, who are also likely to see a drone strike in the heart of the capital as an attack on their sovereignty. So they could not afford to ignore the blow to Zawahiri. Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s designated U.N. representative based in Doha, said the regime was investigating both whether Zawahiri was in Kabul and whether he had been killed and would share its findings. “The investigation is now underway to find out the veracity of both allegations,” he said in a text message to reporters. The Taliban also said in the statement that they wanted to “implement the Doha pact” and that there was no threat to America from Afghanistan. However, the statement condemned Washington for “invasion[ing] our territory and violation[ing] all international authorities’ with the attack, and made a thinly veiled warning that it would consider retaliation in the event of future drone strikes. Several members of the government, including Haqqani, still have bounties on their heads in connection with previous terrorist attacks and are reportedly living in fear of assassination attempts, keeping a low profile and moving regularly. “If such an action is repeated, responsibility for any consequences will lie with the United States of America,” the statement said. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST It was an open secret in many Kabul circles that the neighborhood was full of “Arabs,” a term understood to refer to al-Qaeda operatives and their families. Despite the Taliban’s insistence that they did not know whether the al-Qaida boss was on their doorstep or had been killed, the area was filled with elite troops immediately after the blast on Sunday morning, and is now heavily guarded.
