Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri reportedly took his own life on Sunday morning as he was enjoying the view from the balcony of his safe house, which is home to senior Taliban officials in Kabul Upscale community to live in.
A U.S. drone blasted Zawahiri off a balcony with a precision missile, leaving no one else in his home injured.
Reuters It is somewhat ironic that the wily 71-year-old terrorist leader survived years in Afghanistan’s “craggy mountains” and harsh Pakistani tribal regions while dodging a $25 million US bounty, only to be liquefied while enjoying the comforts of the Taliban . Bed and breakfast. He actually lives in a tiny pink house in Sherpur, a Kabul suburb with tree-lined streets, swimming pools and private gardens.
This BBC Describing Sherpur as “notorious” for its “ornate multi-storey villas” that other Kabul residents derided as the decadent spoils of corrupt government officials and warlords. The community’s name is often deliberately mispronounced as “Choorpur”, which means “city of thieves”.
Many locals insisted to the BBC that al-Zawahiri’s safe house was “empty”, possibly by order from the Taliban. Taliban guards quickly poured into Sherpur, threatening to shoot journalists who asked too many questions.
“In the past few months, we have seen non-Afghan residents in this community. They do not speak the local language. We do not know who they are,” commented a local reporter.
Al-Qaeda’s al-Zawahiri survived harsh mountains, killed in luxury Kabul region https://t.co/fNSpbn77PV pic.twitter.com/A8BBsVtzSg
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 2, 2022
An anonymous Taliban source told Reuters that Zawahiri had been living in a “very safe place” in Kabul since the Taliban took over Afghanistan for months last summer:
Other Taliban sources said the group provided “the highest level of security” to al-Zawahiri in Kabul, but he was largely operationally inactive and required permission from the Taliban to operate.
A Kabul police official called Sherpur the “safest neighborhood” in Kabul and the drone strikes in the area were “shocking.”
Influencers from the previous government of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani built spacious homes in Sherpur, he said. Senior Taliban leaders and their families now live there, the official said.
Undated photo Osama bin Laden (left) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian with ties to al-Qaeda networks , interviewed by Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured) in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. (Visual News/Getty Images)
A U.S. official said U.S. intelligence knew that Zawahiri’s wife, daughter and grandchildren had been living in the house for some time. After months of surveillance, they later confirmed Zawahiri’s existence.
This The country’s U.S. officials were quoted as saying that al-Zawahiri used “long-standing terrorist trade tactics” to conceal his true location.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 2, 2022. (Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Apparently, Al Qaeda’s craft doesn’t include advice like “don’t stand on a balcony where everyone can see you” because national team The source specifically mentions observing him “multiple times” for “a period of time.”
Planners say lengthy monitoring is needed to ensure no collateral damage is caused when a strike is eventually launched.Minor damage to the house during the strike – nothing more than a few broken windows – suggests the drone that killed Zawahiri was used Hellfire R9X The Flying Man missile, which deploys its blades from the fuselage, slices the target into ribbons instead of exploding.
The Taliban denounced al-Zawahiri’s attack as “an act against the interests of Afghanistan and the region” and warned that “repeating such actions would undermine existing opportunities”, which was a major challenge given the Taliban’s reported commitment not to harbor al-Qaeda and other terrorists. is a brazen stance following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This New York Times (New York Times) on Monday lead A Biden administration official said members of the Haqqani network were caught trying to “conceal that Mr. al-Zawahiri was at the house and restrict access to the site.”
The Haqqani Network is a terrorist group with close ties to the Taliban, although Crazy claim to the contrary What the Biden administration did after the fall of Kabul. Several senior members of the Taliban government are Haqqani.
This U.K. daily mail on Monday quote Unconfirmed reports say al-Zawahiri’s safe house is owned by Haqqani network leader and a top aide to Taliban interior minister Sirajddin Haqqani.
