While the al-Qaeda leader is still killed Ayman Al-Zawahiri In the Afghan capital, Kabul, attracting the spotlight, the British newspaper “The Guardian” revealed that the villa in which al-Zawahiri was killed belonged to the US Agency for International Development, which had been rented with dollars for 10 years.
The Guardian reported that “the subject of the villa was revealed by an American civilian contractor who was working in Afghanistan, Dan Smoke, who said that the balcony of the villa in Kabul, where the al-Qaeda leader was killed, was a place he knew well, and he used to stand when he was working in Afghanistan with an American government aid project.” “.
She also added that “the reports of the American intelligence agency were referring to leaked information that al-Zawahiri liked to stand on that balcony because it overlooks the view of Kabul, and the operation was carried out while he was standing there.”
A neighborhood famous for its land grabs.
She also explained that “the house with green mirrored walls on its balcony was in a neighborhood famous for the seizure of its lands and properties by warlords and the technocratic elite of the Afghan Republic, which collapsed last summer,” following the US withdrawal and the Taliban’s seizure of power.
She indicated that “with the escalation of the war, many of the villas that they crammed into small plots of land were rented by non-governmental organizations and contractors, including this villa that was affiliated with the US Agency for Development.”
The view from al-Zawahiri’s balcony (photo published by The Guardian)
While Smoke, a US military veteran in Iraq, who also spent years in civilian work in Afghanistan, confirmed that he lived “in the same place as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.”
He referred to the information regarding the house and its occupants, “Something surreal. Things change quickly. Who knew he was Enemy Number One, with a $25 million bounty on his head, and he literally lives in the same place you used to live before… It’s unbelievable.”
Al Qaeda’s biggest blow
It is reported that US President Joe Biden announced, on Monday, that the United States had killed the leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman Al-Zawahiri in cable.
Al-Zawahiri’s killing represents the biggest blow to al-Qaeda since US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, and raises doubts regarding the extent to which the Taliban has fulfilled its pledge not to harbor armed groups.
The operation is the first announced strike launched by the United States on a target in Afghanistan since Washington withdrew its forces from the country on August 31 last year, days following the Taliban returned to power.
Also, al-Zawahiri is believed to have been the mastermind who directed al-Qaeda’s operations, including the 9/11 attacks, and bin Laden’s personal physician.
