Afghans killed by a drone attack on their balcony in the middle of Kabul on Tuesday (2) doubted the announcement of the death of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri, who had been hiding among them for months in the heart of the Afghan capital.
“I don’t think that’s true. It’s just propaganda,” says Fahim Shah, 66, a Kabul resident.
The death of Al Zawahiri, for which the US has pledged $25 million for any information leading to his capture, was announced on television by US President Joe Biden on Monday.
“On my orders, the United States carried out an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan and killed the al-Qaeda leader,” he said in a short speech from the White House on Sunday morning, Afghan time.
According to a US official, this was a drone strike with two missiles, no ground military presence or no casualties other than Al-Zawahiri, and no significant damage.
“We’ve seen propaganda like this in the past and it wasn’t true. I don’t think he was killed here,” Fahim Shah told AFP.
Abdul Kabir, another Kabul resident, heard the explosion caused by the attack shortly after 6:15 am on Sunday. However, he suspiciously asks the US to provide evidence to support his claim that it was Zawahiri who was killed.
“They have to show the world that they killed this man and provide proof,” he says.
air strike
“They could have killed someone else and declared him the head of al-Qaeda. There are many other places he can hide in Pakistan and even Iraq,” he says.
According to the Americans, Ayman Al-Zawahiri lived in a three-story house in Sherpur, an upscale neighborhood in the center of the Afghan capital. Several houses in the neighborhood were occupied by high-ranking Taliban officials and commanders.
He was killed on his porch, where he was seen several times and for a very long time.
Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani on Sunday denied reports of a drone strike in Kabul and told AFP that a rocket had hit an “empty house” in the capital.
But on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that an “air strike” was carried out with the help of “American drones”.
Mohamad Bilal, a student, also finds it unlikely that the al-Qaeda leader will live in Kabul.
“This is a terrorist group and I don’t think they sent their leader to Afghanistan,” he explains.
“The leaders of most terrorist groups, including the Taliban, were living in Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates at the time of their conflict with former Afghan forces,” he recalls.
For Freshta, a housewife who believes in the death of the al-Qaeda leader, “knowing that she lives here” in Kabul is “shocking”, refusing to give her last name.
A critic of the unidentified Taliban government, a trader in the center of the capital, thinks the porosity of Afghan borders facilitates the entry of armed groups.
“We have no government. We are incapable of protecting ourselves, protecting our land and property,” he said.
source: Noticias
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