By Yuliya Talmazan and Khalid Mowahid -
NBC News
The assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri in central Kabul was a bitter blow not only to Al Qaeda, but also to the Taliban, whose promise not to harbor dangerous international terrorists has been exposed just a year after the group militant returned to power in Afghanistan.
Zawahiri, who went from being a young doctor in Cairo to becoming the leader of Al Qaeda, a former deputy of Osama Bin Laden and one of the intellectual authors of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was killed in an attack by a American drone over the weekend.
At the time of the attack he was living with his family in a Taliban-backed safe house in an upscale neighborhood of the Afghan capital.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken called their presence there a flagrant violation of the 2020 agreement in which the Taliban committed to the United States not to allow terrorist groups to use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.
Two decades after a US-led invasion toppled the former Taliban regime, its harboring of another al Qaeda leader will hamper the hardline Islamic group's quest for international legitimacy and much-needed help, while raising new questions. on the status of the global war on terrorism.
Al-Zawahiri, 71, escaped from US forces when they invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and his whereabouts were long unknown as he assumed leadership of al Qaeda and continued to call for attacks against the United States and its allies.
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According to two senior Taliban leaders, the one who was one of the most wanted fugitives by the United States moved to the Afghan capital about five or six months after the United States withdrew from the country.
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For some in Afghanistan, their refuge is proof that the Taliban was never serious about cutting ties with al Qaeda and jihadist networks.
A Kabul doctor, who spoke to our sister network, NBC News, on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said this raises fears that his home country could once again become a haven for international terrorism.
“Afghanistan is always forgotten by the United States and the international community.
It is in a very difficult situation, ”he opined.
The episode "shows the true face of the Taliban to the world," said a former Kabul police officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
"I don't think anyone in the United States thought they could fully trust the Taliban and their guarantees under the 2020 deal," said Raffaello Pantucci, a counterterrorism expert and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.
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But hosting al-Zawahiri in Kabul may not have been a centralized decision by the Taliban leadership, according to Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics who has written extensively about him.
Instead, the Haqqani network, aligned with Al Qaeda, one of the most powerful factions within the Taliban, could have facilitated their presence in the Afghan capital.
Ayman al-Zawahiri was on the balcony of his home when an American drone attacked him
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The Taliban did not respond to NBC News requests for comment Tuesday.
The militant group's high command will likely have questions about who made the decision to harbor Al-Zawahiri, which could lead to deepening divisions within.
He also leaves them "terrified that American eyes and ears are everywhere," he added.
The attack has shown that the United States has strong intelligence assets on the ground, according to Pantucci, showing that the Biden Administration's efforts to combat terrorist threats without American soldiers on the ground have been quite effective.
"For the Taliban it is a very dangerous time," Gerges said.
"Not only does it undermine efforts to be accepted by the international community, but it shows great vulnerability," he added.
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The same could be said of Al Qaeda, which has stood by as the Islamic State group has emerged as the world's predominant terrorist group.
ISIS has also posed a growing threat in Afghanistan over the past year, as feared after the US withdrawal, with the group's regional affiliate carrying out a series of deadly attacks on Taliban and civilian targets.
Al-Zawahiri's assassination appears to be the end of a chapter, Pantucci said, with al Qaeda weakened and leaderless.
“There are a lot of affiliated groups that could continue to pick up the slack, but I think the al Qaeda iteration responsible for the 9/11 attacks has been pretty battered at this point,” he said.
“But a lot of the problems that grievances created, that created a space for al Qaeda to grow in the first place, haven't gone away.
So a lot of the ember is still potentially there."
Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri speak on Al-Jazeera television in October 2001 about US attacks on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.AP
Following the US withdrawal last summer, the Taliban sought to project a reformed image, seeking global recognition in hopes of raising foreign funds to keep Afghanistan's devastated economy afloat.
But much of the international aid has been withheld as the militant group shows no signs of ending its human rights abuses or closing most girls' schools.
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Afghanistan remains an international pariah, with millions of people mired in an "extreme" humanitarian crisis, according to a new US report.
As many as six million people in the country will face “near famine conditions” this year, while 92% of the population faces some level of food insecurity, according to the report released Monday night by the inspector United States special general for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
The fact that the Taliban embrace Al-Zawahiri is likely to deepen their isolation on the international stage and aggravate the crisis, according to Gerges, harming the most vulnerable.
"The main losers are the Afghans," he added.
