Opinion | Al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri is dead, but Afghanistan terror threat remains a global concern

The presence of Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Kabul casts severe doubt on the Taliban’s pledge that the country will not be a haven for terrorists

Whether the Taliban limits itself to austere Islamist domestic policies or involves itself in external jihadist politics may depend on the winners and losers of the Zawahiri affair

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Taliban security forces stand guard during a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 5 against a US drone strike that killed the al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 3:30am, 11 Aug 2022

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader who was on the US’ “most wanted” list for over 20 years, is dead. The Americans finally got their man – yet it is the location of his death that is most striking, raising questions about the Taliban government in Afghanistan and the terror threat it may pose. Less than a year after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, Zawahiri was found living in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul, seemingly a welcome guest of the Afghan government.

The emir of al-Qaeda came out to take a few minutes of fresh air on his balcony, blissfully unaware that he was under CIA surveillance. Down from a drone came two state-of-the-art bladed, non-explosive US projectiles that killed him and him alone. Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, his theological and ideological guide, who took leadership of al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Pakistan in May 2011, was finally no more.

When the US chaotically left Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban moved to reintroduce its extreme brand of puritanical Islamist governance. Yet it was at pains to stress that this did not mean a return to the state-sponsored terrorism of the late 1990s and early 2000s and to supporting al-Qaeda, which planned and executed the September 11 atrocities. But then the head of al-Qaeda was found in a safe house in their capital city.

The Taliban government’s claim that it had “no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in Kabul” convinced few. It is impossible that he moved to Kabul and took up residence in a prestigious area that had been full of international embassies before the US withdrawal, without knowledge at the highest level.

However, some elements of the Taliban elite were seemingly fully aware but may have been keeping the information from rival Taliban leaders and their factions. If true, this means key elements of the current administration remain determined to reinvigorate and rebuild al-Qaeda, or its next iteration, even if the Taliban government formally opposes this.

Suspicion has therefore fallen on the Haqqani network – designated by the US as a terror group – and its leader, interior minister and public face of the Taliban, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

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