Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a press release late Monday “strongly condemning” an American drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that leftist President Joe Biden introduced had killed the chief of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Reviews citing American intelligence officers point out that al-Zawahiri, who took over the group after the American authorities eradicated predecessor Osama bin Laden, was residing overtly and comfortably in Kabul after the U.S.-backed authorities deserted the nation to the Taliban.
Biden introduced in a night tackle on Monday that an American airstrike had killed al-Zawahiri whereas leaving no civilian casualties – a stark distinction to the Biden airstrike that killed ten Afghan civilians final yr, together with youngsters, with no nationwide safety advantages.
No less than 10 folks, together with youngsters, had been killed in a US airstrike in #Kabul on Sunday, native residents say. US officers stated they’d focused a automobile carrying Daesh suicide bombers. pic.twitter.com/4oltmedJDA
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 30, 2021
Taliban officers had agreed in a take care of the federal government of former President Donald Trump to chop all ties to al-Qaeda and different jihadist terrorist teams in change for Washington to withdraw all troops and finish the two-decade-old Afghan struggle. Biden broke that settlement final yr, failing to honor the Might 1, 2021, deadline either side had agreed to and lengthening the struggle into August.
The Taliban referred to as Biden’s extension of the Afghan Struggle a violation of the settlement brokered with Trump in Doha, Qatar, and used that to launch a marketing campaign of conquest that culminated within the seize of Kabul on August 15, 2022 – which, naturally, additionally violated the settlement. Mujahid (pictured, high), the spokesman, later falsely claimed the Taliban had by no means agreed to chop ties with al-Qaeda.
“Nowhere within the settlement has it been talked about that we now have or don’t have ties with anybody,” he alleged.
Regardless of Biden violating the settlement final yr, Mujahid complained on Monday that the strike that eradicated al-Zawahiri was a violation of the Doha deal.
Mujahid’s assertion first confirmed that an American airstrike had occurred in Kabul.
“The Islamic Emirate’s [the Taliban’s] safety and intelligence companies investigated the incident and of their preliminary investigations discovered that the assault was carried out by American drones,” the assertion learn.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns this assault for any cause and calls it a transparent violation of worldwide rules and the Doha Settlement,” Mujahid wrote. “Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the previous 20 years and are towards the pursuits of the US of America, Afghanistan, and the area. Repeating such actions will harm accessible alternatives.”
Mujahid notably failed to say al-Qaeda or Ayman al-Zawahiri in his condemnation.
Equally, Biden didn’t point out the Taliban in any respect in his speech on Monday evening saying al-Zawahiri’s demise.
Biden claimed the al-Qaeda chief had “moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his speedy household,” with out elaborating. The president as an alternative targeted on al-Zawahiri’s biographical data and warned, “regardless of how lengthy it takes — regardless of the place you conceal — if you’re a menace to our folks, the US will discover you and take you out.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addresses a press convention on February 27, 2022. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Biden emphasised “none of his [al-Zawahiri’s] relations had been harm and there have been no civilian casualties.”
The president additionally claimed that the elimination of the highest al-Qaeda goal, which American officers had been providing a $25 million reward for, confirmed the knowledge of Biden’s chaotic plan to increase the Afghan struggle, break the Trump-brokered take care of the Taliban, and abruptly go away the nation in Taliban fingers.
“Once I ended our army mission in Afghanistan nearly a yr in the past, I made the choice that after 20 years of struggle, the US not wanted 1000’s of trainers on the bottom in Afghanistan to guard America from terrorists who search to do us hurt,” Biden stated. “We’ll by no means once more enable Afghanistan to grow to be a terrorist save-haven.”
The circumstances surrounding al-Zawahiri’s life in Kabul counsel that the Taliban was each conscious of his presence and defending him. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) newspaper the Nationwide reported on Tuesday that al-Zawahiri lived in an upscale Kabul neighborhood and “would often seem out within the open, on his balcony,” apparently with little concern about being recognized.
The announcement Monday that the U.S. had killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the successor to Osama bin Laden, in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, was welcome information to Individuals — although it additionally raised troublesome new questions. https://t.co/Xk0SyUGcAk
— Breitbart Information (@BreitbartNews) August 2, 2022
“The Taliban have been accused of sheltering extremists for years. They’ve denied it repeatedly,” NPR reporter Steve Inskeep defined in a report on Monday from the Afghan capital, “However this was in a really closely secured space of town with checkpoints throughout and really close to the federal government ministries.”
A United Nations report printed two weeks in the past confirmed that al-Zawahiri was alive and “seemingly working in Afghanistan.”
“Member States word that al-Zawahiri’s obvious elevated consolation and skill to speak has coincided with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the consolidation of energy of key [Al Qaeda] allies inside their de facto administration,” the U.N. Analytical Help and Sanctions Monitoring Staff noticed.
File/As seen on a pc display from a DVD ready by Al-Sahab manufacturing, al-Qaida’s Ayman al-Zawahri speaks in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 20, 2006. (AP Picture/B.Okay.Bangash, File)
White Home Nationwide Safety Council Spokesperson John Kirby conceded in an interview with MSNBC on Monday that “senior leaders of the Haqqani Community,” a terrorist entity with “authorities” positions within the Taliban that serves because the group’s liaison to al-Qaeda correct, “had been conscious” of al-Zawahiri’s whereabouts.
The Biden State Division bizarrely tried to assert shortly after the Taliban’s conquest of Afghanistan final yr that the Haqqani Community and the Taliban had been “separate entities,” at the same time as a number of members of the Haqqani household assumed senior positions in Taliban management.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the pinnacle of the Haqqani Community, printed an opinion article within the New York Instances final yr titled, “What We, the Taliban, Need.”
