Zawahiri never had the charisma and leadership skills of bin Laden. Still, the threat to the United States from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan-or even IS-K-is not nearly acute as the challenges that ail the nation internally. In any event, the Taliban is already reeling from international pressure and isolation, and it will face greater pressure to act against remaining al-Qaeda assts. There’s much that we don’t know about how the CIA pulled off this operation, and perhaps its assets in Afghanistan are stronger than believed. cooperation with partners on the ground, undermined a sustainable foundation to collect intelligence, and eliminated in-country bases of operation. The strike against Zawahiri seems all the more impressive in view of the fact that the withdrawal had reportedly weakened U.S. And IS-K-a key Taliban adversary with as many as 4,000 members-continues to operate. The 2020 Doha agreement commits the Taliban leadership to preventing terrorist activity against the United States from its soil, but attacks by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan have increased. Historical connections run deep, and senior Taliban officials-especially Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister and a U.S.-designated terrorist-have close ties with al-Qaeda leaders. It should have come as little surprise that ties between the Taliban and al-Qaeda remain strong. It’s one thing to plan an operation to eliminate a high-profile target and another to track, infiltrate, and destroy an active cell involved in carrying out specific terrorist operations without an on-the-ground presence and an intelligence network. And the Zawahiri’s presence in Afghanistan-in a Kabul neighborhood where Taliban officials also resided-reflected the challenge of al-Qaeda’s presence in the country. After all, Saturday’s strike was the first significant operation in Afghanistan since the U.S. counter-terrorism activity remains to be seen. Whether the strike against Zawahiri is part of a trend line of stepped-up U.S. No, the Terror Problem in Afghanistan Has Not Been Solved drone strike a year earlier against IS-K that killed ten Afghan civilians. Indeed, Saturday’s strike was a much needed corrective to the failed U.S. vital interest in Afghanistan: preventing a terror attack on the homeland. And it managed to carry out an operation that reportedly caused no civilian deaths or injuries. The strike was a counter-argument to those who believed a permanent presence on the ground was essential to what President Joe Biden had declared in August 2021 was the only U.S. intelligence could still be effective in Afghanistan. The intelligence community had been tracking Zawahiri for months, establishing a pattern of his routine and activity much like the period leading up to the strike on Osama bin Laden in May 2011. The precision strike against Zawahiri, ensconced in a safe house in Kabul, was a master class in intelligence and operational capacity and an affirmation that U.S. Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on U.S.
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