The drone strike also brings into relief mounting evidence that after 20 years of American military presence – and then an abrupt departure – Afghanistan has once again become a hotbed for Islamic terrorist groups looking to attack the West. The operation, which took place over the weekend after al-Zawahri and his family were monitored for at least six months, came just weeks before the one-year anniversary of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country. The Biden administration says the operation shows Americans at home and allies abroad that the United States has not lost its focus — or ability to strike terrorists in the region — and validates its decision to end two decades of fighting in Afghanistan. with his withdrawal. Announcing the strike from the White House, President Joe Biden said Monday night that “justice” had been meted out to a leader who in recent weeks had recorded videos calling on his followers to attack the United States and allies. And the White House on Tuesday hailed the operation as a huge counterterrorism victory. “The president made his point when we left,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on NBC’s “Today” show. “After 20 years of war to keep this country safe, he said we will be able to continue targeting and killing terrorists in Afghanistan without troops on the ground.” But as details of the operation continue to emerge, the administration has also revealed troubling evidence of the presence of al Qaeda and the Taliban, who have once again provided sanctuary to the group behind the 9/11 attacks on the United States. White House officials believe senior members of the Haqqani Network, an Islamist terrorist group with strong ties to the Taliban, knew al-Zawahri was in Kabul. Sullivan said that while al-Zawahri was not involved in day-to-day planning at the time of his assassination, he continued to play an active role in directing al-Qaeda and posed “a serious threat” to the US and American citizens. On Tuesday, the State Department updated its Global Alert, warning US citizens traveling abroad that “there is an increased potential for anti-American violence given the death of Ayman al-Zawahri.” Concerns about al Qaeda’s efforts to regroup within Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are hardly new. Before the strike, US military officials, including General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said al Qaeda was trying to regroup in Afghanistan, where it faces limited threats from the now-ruling Taliban. Military leaders have warned that the group still aspires to attack the US Al Qaeda’s leadership has reportedly played an advisory role since the Taliban returned to power in the face of the US withdrawal, according to a UN Security Council report last month. The U.N. report also noted that ISIS-K — the group that carried out a mass attack that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and dozens of Afghans near Kabul International Airport days before the U.S. completed its withdrawal last year — has become increasingly active. in northern and eastern Afghanistan. This is of concern to the West although ISIS-K and the Taliban espouse different ideologies and interests, with ISIS-K waging a bloody insurgency against the Taliban and religious minorities across Afghanistan. “Zawahri’s presence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal suggests that, as feared, the Taliban are once again providing safe haven to al Qaeda leaders – a group with which it has never broken,” said Nathan Sales, general ambassador and counterterrorism coordinator during the Trump administration, who is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Frank McKenzie, the retired Marine general who until earlier this year was the top US military officer in the Middle East, said the US has noted an attempt by al Qaeda to re-establish training camps in Afghanistan. “I don’t see anything happening in Afghanistan right now that tells me the Taliban are determined to prevent that from happening,” he said in an interview. Since the withdrawal of US troops, US military leaders have said that America’s ability to track and strike a target in the country would be difficult but not impossible. The strike on Zawahri proved both, said McKenzie, who is now executive director of the Institute for Global and National Security at the University of South Florida. However, he cautioned against drawing general conclusions from this single drone attack. “This was a unique occasion,” he said. “You had a target that didn’t budge and they had a chance to get a good look at the pattern of life. It won’t always be like this. In fact, typically, that’s not the case.” That al-Zawahri lived in a Kabul neighborhood and not in rural Afghanistan as previously believed “tells you he was very comfortable” under Taliban protection, said Colin Clarke, director of research at The Soufan Group, a global service information. and security company. “These entities work hand in glove,” Clark said of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The Taliban had promised in the 2020 Doha Agreement on the terms of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan that they would not harbor al-Qaeda members or those seeking to attack the US The Taliban were quick to condemn the US strike as a “clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement”, although they did not acknowledge that al-Zawahri had been killed. The US did not warn the Taliban government, which the United States does not recognize, that it was conducting the operation. “Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan and the region,” the Taliban statement said. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on how or if the US would hold the Taliban responsible for harboring al-Zawahri. “The Taliban have a choice now,” Kirby said. “And that is that they can comply with their agreement under the Doha agreement … or they can choose to go down a different path. And if they take a different path, that will lead to consequences not only from the United States but also from the international community.” Kirby said the US had already engaged the Taliban about al-Zawahri’s presence after Sunday’s strike. The Taliban are still under US government sanctions for their role in harboring al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks. After the collapse of the US-backed government in Kabul last summer, the Biden administration froze billions of dollars in assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank to prevent the assets from falling under Taliban control. Some of that money has since been released for humanitarian aid to deal with the dire hunger crisis in the country. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was quick to congratulate Biden on the operation, but also argued that it “further indicates that Afghanistan is once again becoming a hotbed of terrorist activity following the president’s decision to withdraw American forces.” “The killing of al-Zawahri is a success, but the underlying resurgence of al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan is a growing threat that was predictable and preventable,” McConnell said. “The administration needs a comprehensive plan to rebuild our ability to fight it.”
AP Staff Writer Matthew Lee contributed.
