Taliban claim they didn't know al-Qaida leader living in Kabul

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Afghanistan
This photograph taken on August 2, 2022 shows a view of the Sherpur area in Kabul. (Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP)

The Taliban claim they were unaware that al Qaeda commander Ayman al-Zawahiri resided in the Afghan capital of Kabul, where he was reportedly killed in a weekend drone hit, as reported by the United States.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is unaware of Ayman al-arrival Zawahiri's and stay in Kabul," the Taliban declared Thursday in a statement.

The Taliban stated, "The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has ordered the investigative and intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough and serious investigation into all aspects of the incident."

US President Joe Biden said that Zawahiri was assassinated early Sunday morning by a US drone strike on his home in Kabul.

A senior US administration official stated that senior Taliban figures from the Haqqani network were aware of the al Qaeda leader's presence in the region and even took measures to conceal his presence after the strike, including restricting access to his safe house and relocating his family, including his daughter and her children, to a new location.

The house where al-Zawahiri was sheltering was located in the Sherpur neighborhood of the Green Zone, where most former Afghan government officials resided.

During the years of civil unrest and Taliban administration in the 1990s, the former military base in the Sherpur area remained largely unoccupied.

In 2003, the Afghan military ministry abandoned it. The government subdivided it into more than 50 plots, distributing them to influential individuals, such as government ministers, other high-ranking officials, warlords, and drug lords. Their homes quickly earned the moniker "poppy palaces."

After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021, the majority of Sherpur homeowners departed the nation, and the Taliban seized their properties.

Publish : 2022-08-05 05:55:00

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