Had No Information Zawahiri Was In Kabul: Taliban

Days after President Joe Biden announced that top al-Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a U.S. drone strike on a residential house in downtown Kabul, Taliban said that they have no information about Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in the city. U.S. officials have said the 71-year-old Zawahiri was staying at the home of a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani who is now the acting interior minister in the Taliban government. “The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has instructed the intelligence agencies to hold a comprehensive and serious investigation,” a Taliban statement said. The U.S. has an entirely different take. “We do believe that senior members of the Haqqani network, which is associated with the Taliban, knew that Zawahiri was in Kabul,” Jake Sullivan, Nation Security Adviser to President Biden told CBS Mornings. “There may have been other members who didn’t. And we are communicating directly with the Taliban about their obligations not to allow al Qaeda to use Afghanistan as a base for plotting.” He added: “We’re not obviously just going to take their word for it. We proved that this weekend by taking out Ayman al-Zawahiri and we’re prepared to take further action.” The Taliban had promised in the 2020 Doha Agreement with the U.S. that they would not harbour al Qaeda members or those seeking to attack the U.S.