Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of Al Qaeda, was located and killed by a U.S. drone hit in a counterterrorism operation over the weekend when he was living in downtown Kabul with his immediate family.
National security advisor to President Biden Jake Sullivan claims that the White House is in contact with the Taliban regarding their knowledge of al-whereabouts Zawahiri’s and investigating if they were providing him with protection in Afghanistan.
“We do believe that senior members of the Haqqani network, which is associated with the Taliban, knew that Zawahiri was in Kabul,” Sullivan told “CBS Mornings.” “There may have been other members who didn’t. And we are communicating directly with the Taliban about their obligations not to allow al Qaeda to use Afghanistan as a base for plotting.”
Added he, “Obviously, we won’t accept their claims at face value. We demonstrated that over the weekend by eliminating Ayman al-Zawahiri, and we’re ready to take more action.”
The fact that the attack took place over a year after American soldiers left Afghanistan, according to Sullivan, proves that the country can still keep Afghanistan from being used as a base for terrorist organizations without having American troops there.
“If there is someone plotting in Afghanistan against the United States, or if there is an Al Qaeda leader trying to inspire attacks against America and Americans as Zawahiri was doing, we will find them, and we will take them out, and we just did that,” Sullivan said.
Al-Zawahiri has been on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list for several years. He is regarded as one of the September 11 attacks’ main architects.
Michael Morell, a former acting director of the CIA and a CBS News contributor, recalled how former President George W. Bush kept a spreadsheet of all the 9/11 conspirators, and each person would be checked off the list as they were apprehended or murdered, on “CBS Mornings.”
“This weekend was the last person on the list, that was al-Zawahiri, and he was crossed,” Morell said.
According to Morell, al-passing Zawahiri’s both sends a message to other al Qaeda members and provides some kind of closure for the families of the 9/11 victims.
“Al Qaeda has wanted to use Afghanistan, to use Taliban control of Afghanistan to rebuild their capabilities. They’re fairly weak there now, but they want to rebuild their capabilities, and what this does, more than anything else, it says to them, ‘we have to worry first and foremost about our security even in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan because the U.S. can reach us there’,” said Morell. “That will make it more difficult for them to rebound. So that is a good thing, that is the main benefit of this strike over the weekend.”