Al Qaeda

2022 - 8 - 2

Post cover — Image courtesy of "ABC News"

What we know about the US strike on Al Qaeda leader Ayman al ... (ABC News)

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan on Sunday. This is what we know about how it unfolded.

Prior to the formation of Al Qaeda, Zawahiri led the group Islamic Jihad in Egypt in the 1990s, and was a leading figure in a campaign to overthrow the government and set up a purist Islamic state. "Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region," the statement said. Family members of Zawahiri, including his daughter and her children, were in the house at the time of the attack but no others had been killed, according to US officials. On this day, a US drone fired two Hellfire missiles at the 71-year-old Al Qaeda leader as he stood, according to US officials speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the strike. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan on Sunday, the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by a US operation in 2011. At sunrise on Sunday, Zawahiri came outside on the balcony of a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, and apparently lingered there, as US intelligence noted he often did.

Why death of al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri will have little impact (Aljazeera.com)

Once the news cycle moves on, it will be business as usual for the US, the Taliban and even al-Qaeda itself.

The current US president and those in his administration are undoubtedly aware of this. We are likely to witness the same between the US and the Taliban after al-Zawahiri’s killing. And he knew that he did not need to be one to ensure the group’s expansion and longevity. The set of ideas that guide the group existed long before al-Qaeda, and will undoubtedly continue to be supported by some in zones of failing governance or alienation after its elimination. During al-Zawahiri’s tenure, al-Qaeda adopted an expansion model which can best be described as “franchising”. Under his command, the group expanded its reach from Mali to Kashmir with the addition of numerous largely autonomous and financially self-sufficient branches or “franchises”. As these branches are able to continue operations without much intervention from the central command, the death of any leader is unlikely to cause the network to disintegrate. However, it is unlikely that it will lead to any significant change or mark a turning point in the regional let alone global status quo.

Opinion: What Ayman al-Zawahiri's death means for al-Qaida's future (NPR)

After hunting for him for 21 years, U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend with a drone strike targeting him at a safe house in ...

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What now for al-Qaeda? (BBC News)

The BBC's security correspondent looks at what can be expected from al-Qaeda now its leader has been killed.

It was here that he lived for five years under the Taliban's protection from 1996-2001. In 2000 it rammed a tiny speedboat packed with high explosives into the side of the USS Cole in Aden harbour, killing 17 sailors and crippling this billion-dollar warship. Al-Qaeda remains at heart a Middle Eastern terror group. Despite the clues missed by Washington, the attacks succeeded partly because the CIA was not sharing its secrets with the FBI and vice versa. In fact, what is al-Qaeda and is it even relevant any more in 2022? US and Western intelligence agencies are now far better informed, they collaborate more and their recruitment of informants from inside al-Qaeda and ISIS have meant fewer successful terror attacks.

Al Qaeda Honcho Zawahiri Got Droned and No One Gave a Shit (The Intercept - First Look Media)

That Zawahiri's killing went so quietly suggests that the cultural and political behemoth that was the war on terror had long preceded him into the grave.

The great tragedy and crime of the war on terror was that the United States decided to take revenge for it on entire civilian populations of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, who bore no guilt for the 9/11 attacks. Jihadist terrorism may yet make a comeback, but I doubt it will do so anytime soon in a manner that affects Americans the way that September 11 did. The killing of Zawahiri may provide a modicum of justice for the victims of the September 11 attacks. While it’s hard to find 9/11 perpetrators who paid for the attack in any way, millions of others have died, been wounded, or driven from their homes because of U.S. military actions following the attacks. The victory of the Afghan Taliban over the U.S. military and its allies in Afghanistan taught an important lesson to Islamists around the world. Only five of the hundreds of men held at the notorious Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp were put on trial for 9/11; they remain there, their cases stalled in pretrial hearings. This won’t be the last drone strike or raid that the U.S. carries out in the Middle East, but the killing of Zawahiri marks the close of a particular chapter in American history. The United States is now preoccupied with a deadly war in Ukraine, as well as a growing rivalry with China that is likely to put far more strain on its resources than Al Qaeda ever did. By noon, the Zawahiri news had been pushed off the top of the New York Times’s website by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and a Style section story about an iconic New York City guitar teacher. International terrorism was always a departure for Islamist groups, whose focus even in carrying out foreign attacks was to effect changes back home. Unlike Osama bin Laden’s death more than a decade ago, which prompted an outpouring of street celebrations and chest-beating by U.S. politicians and national security elites, the reaction to Zawahiri’s demise has been noticeably muted. Whereas the Islamic State group carried out terrorist attacks against Western civilians that enraged foreign publics and justified crushing military responses, the Taliban laser-focused on the conflict on the ground at home against the Afghan central government, even cutting deals with the Americans to keep their troops out of the fray.

Slain al Qaeda leader's presence in Kabul strains U.S.-Taliban ties (Politico)

Speaking days after a U.S. drone strike killed Ayman al-Zawahri, senior U.S. officials warned that America will not permit Afghanistan to become a haven for ...

“You are going to have to work directly with NGOs in the country. “But their behavior is that of a rogue regime and U.S. policy towards them should reflect that reality.” His presence in Pakistan, and the U.S. attack, further damaged an already frayed relationship between Islamabad and Washington. At the time, the militants had sheltered al-Zawahri’s predecessor, Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the attacks, and they refused to give him up to U.S. custody. There’s a strong sense in official and analytical circles that the Taliban leadership is not entirely united on every sensitive issue. “So their loyalties are to each other, not to some government in the capital.” He vowed that the U.S. would not allow Afghanistan to again become a haven for terrorists. Even if top officials in Kabul promise not to harbor international terrorists, Taliban and al Qaeda members’ long-standing relationships make it hard for the militants to deny one another shelter, a Biden administration official familiar with the issue said. Their ideology is aligned with a jihadist narrative,” said Kate Bateman, an Afghanistan specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “They also betrayed the Afghan people and their own stated desire for recognition from and normalization with the international community.” “They simply can’t be trusted and the risk is substantial that money released to them would find their way inevitably and directly into al Qaeda’s pockets.” Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan nearly a year ago, the country has slipped into a humanitarian crisis.