WASHINGTON — America killed the highest chief of Al Qaeda in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, over the weekend, in line with present and former U.S. officers.
Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over the management of the group after the dying of Osama bin Laden, was killed within the strike, the primary assault in Afghanistan since American forces left final yr and a big victory for the Biden administration’s counterterrorism efforts.
U.S. officers mentioned the strike was not carried out by the army. A former official mentioned the operation was carried out by the C.I.A. Company officers declined to remark.
A senior administration official mentioned that the operation was profitable and that there have been no civilian casualties. The White Home was anticipated to transient reporters later Monday evening, a second administration official mentioned.
“The strike that killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri is a significant success of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. A results of numerous hours of intelligence assortment over a few years,” mentioned Mick Mulroy, a former C.I.A. officer and senior Pentagon official. “He possible believed we’d by no means have the ability to monitor him down. However he was fallacious.”
Mr. Zawahri had averted Afghanistan for years. His return to Kabul with the Taliban takeover raises questions concerning the group’s dedication to holding Al Qaeda overseas.
A statement from the Taliban condemned the operation and mentioned the strike was carried out on a residential home in Kabul’s Sherpur space, a rich downtown neighborhood that officers from the Taliban authorities have frequented. An investigation by Taliban authorities concluded that the assault was carried out by American drones, the assertion mentioned, although it offered no proof to help the claims.
Taliban officers consider the Doha settlement — which outlined the phrases for the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — prohibits American strikes, one thing U.S. officers dispute. Residents in Kabul blamed Pakistan for presumably serving to with the airstrike.
In response to one American analyst, the home that was struck was owned by a prime aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official within the Taliban authorities whom American officers say is near senior Qaeda figures.
The analyst mentioned footage of the strike posted on social media instructed a strike by an RX9, a hellfire missile armed with lengthy blades aimed toward killing targets with kinetic power to attenuate main collateral injury.
Within the months since the US withdrew from Afghanistan, American army and diplomatic officers have been discussing with allies the place to reposition American forces for strikes on high-value targets in Afghanistan. This so-called over-the-horizon technique remains to be in its infancy, and talks about positioning forces in neighboring Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have proceeded slowly.
As the US was evacuating folks from Afghanistan, a drone strike primarily based on unhealthy info in Kabul killed 10 civilians. America didn’t initially acknowledge the error, solely doing so after reporting by The New York Occasions. Since then, the Pentagon and Biden administration have been taking extra precautions to forestall civilian casualties within the strikes.
Even with out close by bases, the US has loads of functionality to ship unmanned drones in addition to manned assault plane inside putting distance of Afghanistan, from land bases alongside the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and even the US.
Three U.S. officers reached on Monday mentioned that the strikes weren’t carried out by the Protection Division or United States Central Command, the combatant command with accountability for Afghanistan, leaving open the chance that the strike was carried out by the C.I.A. J. Todd Breasseale, the performing Pentagon press secretary, declined to touch upon the strike.
The U.S. authorities is presently reviewing its coverage on drone strikes towards terrorist targets. Whereas the army usually conducts strikes in established warfare zones, the C.I.A. carries out the operations in areas the place the US needs a measure of secrecy over its actions.
As a result of the Taliban authorities opposes any drone strikes in its territory, the US could have most popular to make use of the C.I.A. to conduct the operation.
Whereas the C.I.A. has its personal drones, it’s going to additionally use army drones, with authority of the strikes handing over to the company because the plane enters into airspace the place Protection Division plane should not approved to function.
Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting from Kabul.
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