America Hunts Down Al-Qaeda Chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Pakistan Gets An IMF Bailout. Is There A Quid Pro Quo? Who Will Be The Next Emir Of Al-Qaeda?
America Hunts Down Al-Qaeda Chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Pakistan Gets An IMF Bailout. Is There A Quid Pro Quo? Who Will Be The Next Emir Of Al-Qaeda?
In an early-morning drone strike on Sunday, July 31, 2022, the United States killed Ayman al-Zawahiri using a Hellfire R9X missile. Zawahiri was the leader of Al-Qaeda and the guiding light of global jihad.
This ended a 21-year manhunt to bring to justice the perpetrators of the dastardly terror act of 9/11. Besides Osama Bin Laden, he was the chief architect of the terror attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. More than 3,000 innocent, hard-working Americans were killed in that terror attack.
The operation was confirmed by US President Joe Biden, who, in a national address to the American people, said that justice had been delivered. He also warned that anyone who posed a threat to Americans and the values they represent would be similarly taken out of their den and hunted down.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri was born in Egypt in 1951 and was baptized into terrorism at the young age of 14 when he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. This was followed by a short stint with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
His spectacular career graph in terrorism reached its zenith when he finally joined Al-Qaeda. Even though a career terrorist, he got himself trained in medicine and was a certified surgeon. Zawahiri was wanted by the CIA for bombing US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
In 2009, he became operations commander of Al-Qaeda. In 2011, he succeeded Osama Bin Laden as Al-Qaeda chief after Osama was killed in a special covert operation by American Navy seals.
Finding him was a long and tardy process for the security establishment of the US. He was being tracked by the CIA for years but without much success because. He could be hiding anywhere in the vast expanse of the Islamic world, from the borders of Pakistan and Iran to Yemen.
The search narrowed down to Afghanistan in August 2021 because of the US withdrawal from that country. Soon after, the country was overrun and overtaken by the Taliban.
Intelligence officials thought that the US withdrawal would tempt these terrorists to relocate to Afghanistan as it would be free from American surveillance. Afghanistan, run by the Taliban, who themselves are a bunch of terrorists, is a safe haven for terrorist masterminds like Zawahiri.
Afghanistan would be the perfect hiding place for Zawahiri as there would be no presence of American forces and no anti-terror operations. This created a false sense of reassurance in him and tempted him to relocate to Afghanistan.
The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) sleuths were still looking for him with their informant networks on the ground, which had been created meticulously over the years during their stay in Afghanistan. These assets helped the CIA comb the country and its hinterland for terrorists.
The CIA had a breakthrough when they learnt that Zawahiri’s wife and his daughter had moved to Kabul. Eventually, Zawahiri himself returned to Kabul. His family tried their best to keep the location secret, but CIA informants soon found out.
The dreaded terrorist was hiding in a safe house in downtown Kabul called Sherpur. He was making promotional videos to be distributed among his followers to recruit more Muslim youth to take up jihad.
Hiding in plain sight is the preferred way of Al-Qaeda terrorists to evade the eyes of intelligence agencies like the CIA. He was staying in a multistory building in a populated area in Sherpur, Kabul. He was blissfully ignorant of the fact that he was still under constant surveillance of the CIA.
Once it was confirmed that it was Zawahiri, the CIA put in place a plan to get him. Intelligence analysts kept looking for pattern-of-life intelligence that could be exploited by them to kill their target. They made a crucial discovery in the months preceding the drone strike.
Zawahiri never left the building. He would spend long hours early in the morning reading alone on the balcony of his safe house to get some fresh air. The extended time spent on the balcony was sufficient for a clear missile shot without any associated collateral damage.
CIA officials briefed the national security officials at the White House on April 1, 2022 about the safe house. They got it vetted from independent analysts about the certitude of the information and identity of all the inhabitants of the house. William Burns, the CIA director, briefed President Joe Biden on July 1, and made a presentation about the drone strike.
Joe Biden made his own enquiries about the operation. He also analyzed the possible political ramifications of the operation. Joe Biden was particularly concerned about the possibility of collateral damage. On July 25, after due deliberation and being satisfied regarding his concerns, he authorized the CIA to go ahead with the strike whenever the opportunity presented.
Sherpur is a densely populated and closed space area of Kabul. Two hellfire R9Q missiles, also known as ninja bombs, were fired at him. These bombs do not explode but have blades which cut through the target killing the person instantaneously. Zawahiri is said to have died on the spot.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s death has raised many questions. The Taliban had assured the international community that it would not provide sanctuary to international terrorists in lieu of their government being recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
That assurance stands negated and is in sharp contrast to the ground reality. Zawahiri could not have found sanctuary in Kabul without the tacit endorsement and support of the Taliban. In fact, the safe house that Zawahiri was living in happened to be owned by an aide of a senior official of the Haqqani network. The Haqqani network is the most violent wing of the Taliban.
The Haqqani network and Al-Qaeda have a very old and close relationship. This has put a question mark on the credibility of the Taliban. The Taliban has maintained a studied silence on the issue after condemning the drone attack.
There is another perspective that is being speculated widely regarding the strike. Pakistan’s economy is in dire straits. It urgently needs an IMF bailout. It is believed that Pakistan gave the intelligence on Zawahiri to America in return for the next tranche of the IMF bailout package being released. This works very well for America as they control the IMF.
Congressional elections are to take place in November. Joe Biden’s ratings have been plummeting steadily, which would mean the Democrats would lose control of the Congress. If that were to happen, Joe Biden would become a lame duck President. This seems to be a last-ditch effort by the Biden administration to prevent that eventuality.
Barack Obama resorted to the same tactic when his presidency was under attack, and elections were round the corner. Osama Bin Laden was killed in a covert operation, and Obama won the 2012 presidential elections. This does not augur well for democracy, as American politicians would then have a vested interest in keeping terrorism alive and use it for political mileage.
Discussions are going on as to who would succeed Zawahiri as Al-Qaeda chief. This will be decided by a Shura that will be convened very soon. Four names are doing the rounds, but the frontrunner is a man named Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian and the son-in-law of Zawahiri.
The other three candidates in the race are Abd al-Rahman al-Maghribi, Yezid Mebarek, and Ahmed Diriye. The new leader would have a very tough task at his hand. America has stepped up its counter-terrorism offensive, and use of high-end state-of-the-art technology would make it very difficult for Al-Qaeda to regain its foothold in the terrorism business.
We pray that they all get taken out by drone strikes. Never before would a drone strike be so welcome in the civilized world.
