Taliban investigating “claims” that al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in U.S. drone strike

The Taliban claimed to have “no information” regarding Ayman al-“entry Zawahiri’s and stay” in Kabul on Thursday, adding that they were looking into “reports” that the al Qaeda leader had been killed in a U.S. drone strike there.

The Taliban addressed the drone attack that killed the commander of the al Qaeda network on the balcony of a Kabul safe house, which American officials claimed was connected to a Taliban leader, for the first time in the statement.

Relations between the Taliban and the West have grown more tense as a result of al-murder, Zawahiri’s especially because the Taliban are desperately in need of money to deal with the economic crisis that has erupted in Afghanistan since the United States withdrew a year ago.

In the 2020 Doha Agreement with the United States, the Taliban had pledged that they would not host any members of al Qaeda or others wishing to attack the United States.

The Taliban appeared to address those worries in their statement on Thursday.

They assured that “there is no threat to any country, including America, from the soil of Afghanistan,” that “the Islamic Emirate wants to implement the Doha pact,” and that “the violation of the pact must end.” They claimed to have “instructed the investigative and intelligence agencies to conduct a comprehensive and serious investigation into the various aspects of the incident.”

The strike early on Sunday woke up Shirpur, which was originally home to a collection of historic structures that were razed in 2003 to make room for mansions for officials of Afghanistan’s Western-backed government and foreign aid agencies. Senior Taliban occupied several of the vacant residences there when the U.S. left the nation in August 2021.

Al-Zawahiri, according to U.S. authorities, was residing at the residence of a prominent adviser to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Haqqani network, a potent faction within the Taliban, is led by Haqqani, who also acts as the movement’s deputy leader and interior minister.

The Haqqani network is an Islamic insurgency in Afghanistan that is centered on the same-named family. It fought Soviet forces in the 1980s, and for the last 20 years, it has fought NATO forces commanded by the United States and the former Afghan government. Sirajuddin Haqqani is the subject of a $10 million bounty placed by the American government for assaults on American service members and Afghan civilians.

However, the Haqqanis, who hail from the eastern Afghan province of Khost, have opponents in the Taliban’s top ranks, most of whom are from the southern regions of Helmand and Kandahar. Some think Sirajuddin Haqqani want more authority. Throughout the insurgency, several Taliban leaders have denounced the Haqqanis’ assaults on innocent civilians in Kabul and elsewhere.

According to a report by the UN’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, al-Zawahiri increased his outreach to supporters in the first half of 2022 through video and audio messages, assuring them that al Qaeda could contend with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group for control of a global movement.