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Islamabad, Pakistan – Afghanistan’s Taliban administration claimed Thursday that it had ‘no data’ that slain al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was residing in Kabul and warned of unspecified “penalties” if the USA breached Afghan territorial sovereignty sooner or later.
The official declaration in native and English languages got here a number of days after an American aerial assault killed the fugitive terror mastermind in an upscale neighborhood within the coronary heart of the Afghan capital.
U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed al-Zawahiri’s assassination late Monday.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no details about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and keep in Kabul,” the Taliban assertion stated, utilizing the official title of the hardline group’s authorities.
The Taliban management has ordered a “severe and complete” investigation into “numerous elements of the incident,” in accordance with the assertion.
The Islamist group once more condemned the U.S. motion as a violation of Afghan territory and worldwide legal guidelines. The assertion stated the Taliban authorities “desires to implement the Doha pact and the violation of the pact should finish.”
“If such motion is repeated, the accountability of any penalties will likely be on the USA of America,” the Taliban stated with out elaborating.
Taliban fighters drive a automotive on a road following the killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a U.S. strike over the weekend, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2, 2022.
Zawahiri’s presence within the coronary heart of Kabul is seen a humiliating blow to the Taliban, who seized energy practically a yr in the past and have been in search of worldwide legitimacy for his or her rule.
The February 2020 settlement the Taliban and Washington sealed within the Qatari capital of Doha referred to as for U.S.-led international troops to withdraw from Afghanistan and the then-insurgent group to stop transnational terrorists from working within the nation.
Washington, nevertheless, accuses the Taliban of violating the 2020 pact.
‘By internet hosting and sheltering the chief of al-Qaida in Kabul, the Taliban grossly violated the Doha Settlement and repeated assurances to the world that they might not permit Afghan territory for use by terrorists to threaten the safety of different international locations,” in accordance with a U.S. State Division official.
A senior U.S. official stated on Monday that al-Zawahiri, the 71-year-old Egyptian jihadist chief, was on the balcony of a three-story home within the Sherpur space of the Afghan capital when two Hellfire missiles fired from an unmanned plane struck him.
“The Haqqani Taliban members acted shortly to take away Zawahiri’s spouse, his daughter and her youngsters to a different location, in step with a broader effort to cowl up that they’d been dwelling within the secure home,” said the U.S. official. The slain terror chief carried a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head.
The weekend drone strike got here simply days after Taliban Overseas Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi reassured a global convention hosted by neighboring Uzbekistan that his authorities wouldn’t permit any teams, together with al-Qaida, to make use of Afghanistan for terrorism towards any nation. He cited the particular counterterrorism clause within the pact.
“Final week in Tashkent we heard the Taliban attempting to persuade international locations and organizations dedicated to supporting the Afghan folks that they’d full management over Afghan territory. They repeated their dedication that Afghanistan wouldn’t change into a secure haven for terrorists,” Tomas Niklasson, the European Union’s particular envoy for Afghanistan stated on Twitter Wednesday.
“The killing of Mr. al-Zawahiri by the U.S. in central Kabul reinforces earlier doubts about such claims. Had been the Taliban unaware, unable or unwilling to take motion towards the AQ chief?” the envoy requested.
Niklasson went on to query whether or not the Taliban would be capable to ship on their commitments that they might rule the nation by means of an “objectively inclusive authorities” and respect human rights. “Are they extra able to delivering on these guarantees to the Afghan folks?”
U.S. officers have stated that al-Zawahiri was hosted in Kabul by senior members of the so-called Haqqani Community, a robust militant faction throughout the Taliban with deep al-Qaida ties and hyperlinks to the Pakistani spy company. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the chief of the community, is the highly effective inside minister within the Taliban authorities and carries a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.
Analysts shortly questioned Thursday’s Taliban declaration.
“Not so good on the a part of Taliban to say on one hand they management the complete nation and however they did not know who lived on this home,” stated Torek Farhadi, a political commentator and former Afghan official.
“The very best plan of action would have been to acknowledge the reality and transfer on; to handle the actual challenges of Afghanistan,” stated Farhadi, citing humanitarian and financial hardships dealing with the war-torn and calamity-hit nation’s practically 40 million inhabitants.
Washington and the world at giant have declined to present legitimacy to the Taliban rule, linking such a transfer to easing of restrictions the hardline group has positioned on girls to limit their entry to work and training, and upholding counterterrorism pledges.
The U.S. has imposed strict monetary sanctions on the Taliban and has withheld from them about $7 billion of Afghanistan’s international monetary reserves.
The US and its allies invaded the South Asian nation 20 years in the past and dislodged the then-Taliban authorities in Kabul for allowing al-Qaida leaders Osama Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to plot the September 2001 lethal terrorist strikes towards America.
The Taliban later waged a lethal insurgency and took over the nation final August when the Western-backed authorities and its safety forces collapsed within the face of gorgeous rebel assaults as worldwide forces withdrew.
Bin Laden, the founding father of the al-Qaida community, was situated and killed by U.S. forces in his hideout within the Pakistani metropolis, Abbottabad, in 2011, and al-Zawahiri turned his successor.
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