- Liz Dositt
- Chief International Missionary, BBC
2 hours ago
This is the suspected site of the attack in Kabul, where a green plastic sheet hangs over balconies.
The first signs of an operation that took months to prepare appeared when an attack rocked downtown Kabul in the early hours of Sunday morning, when we heard two explosions in our next street.
There has been speculation about who or what hit this “empty house” in Sherpur.
Over the past two decades, this neighborhood has been famous for its high-end multi-storey villas, which Kabul residents derided as a bastion of warlords and corrupt officials, and a gaudy symbol of the ugly spoils of war.
The people of Kabul call it “Shurpur”, which means the city of thieves. The Taliban have seized some empty villas, close to some of the western embassies with high walls, which also closed their doors when the Taliban seized power.
And every day new pieces of this puzzle appeared: talk of a possible strike on an ISIS target and the use of an American march raised more questions and the involvement of American forces on the ground.
The mystery ended in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
As Kabul awoke to the news that the United States had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone attack, we tried to approach the area on a major road that leads down a street, passing the Spinneys department store and Ghazanfar Afghan Bank.
An angry Taliban security guard blocked our way and warned us not to approach.
But we managed to get to the villa from behind on foot via a side road.
Guards and workers in nearby buildings confirmed the location of the house that was bombed on Sunday, and the balconies that protrude from the upper floor were covered with green plastic.
Has anyone seen any activity or residents in this place?
The repeated answer was that “the house was empty”. Was this a rehearsed answer, or an echo of the official Taliban narrative?
The owners of the neighboring buildings told us that hours before that they were ordered to close the roofs of their homes to everyone, even their workers.
While news of Al-Zawahiri’s death was running like an electric current in social media, the scene of this explosive moment seemed strangely quiet.
On this warm summer’s day, traffic was sloshing through the nearby tree-lined streets. But as time passed, more journalists arrived, more passersby stopped, and more Taliban security guards showed up.
“If you don’t listen to me, I will talk to you through my rifle,” a Taliban gunman warned a colleague as we were standing on the main street.
A group of Afghan and foreign journalists approached us, and one of the journalists was crying after an angry argument on the main street that led to the place in front of the house.
Her equipment had been taken from her by force, and later returned to her.
Now what was just whispers is getting louder.
People have recently circulated that, in recent months, Arabs have been seen roaming these streets. No one dared to talk about it.
A local journalist who lives nearby told us, “We’ve seen non-Afghan residents in this neighborhood for the past two months. They don’t speak the local language. We don’t know who they are.”
And now there are a lot of questions, conspiracy theories and a series of possible consequences.
The news of the death of Al-Zawahiri, who is considered at the top of America’s most wanted list, had been rumored several times before, including last year when it was said that he had died of illness.
photo released, Getty Images
Al-Zawahiri was one of the most prominent speakers and theorists in Al-Qaeda.
It was said that if he was alive, he would live in seclusion in the rugged terrain along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
But now it turns out he was a guest of the Taliban leadership, living in that villa right in the center of Kabul that is said to belong to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting Afghan interior minister who is under US terrorism sanctions.
There is a repeat of the killing of al-Zawahiri’s brother in arms, Osama bin Laden, at the hands of the United States in 2011, who was hiding in plain sight in a villa in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, opposite a Pakistani military academy.
There is also a repetition of the Taliban’s response to the United States after the 9/11 attacks that bin Laden exists only as a guest of honor in accordance with the Afghan Pashtun tradition.
The agreement between the United States and the Taliban in 2020, signed after nearly two years of difficult negotiations in Qatar, was intended to solve this sensitive problem.
During those negotiations, we were repeatedly told that the Taliban’s commitment to never allow Afghanistan to be a safe haven again would be expressed very clearly.
But the agreement that emerged, with secret annexes, was not entirely clear.
The Taliban have pledged to prevent any attacks on American soil from their own soil.
But they never openly agreed to sever ties with fellow jihadists, including al-Zawahiri, who, like other al-Qaeda leaders, swore allegiance to the Taliban leader, or emir, Haibatullah Akhundzada.
photo released, Getty Images
A checkpoint for Taliban security forces in Sherpur district, where Al Dhaheri was killed in a US drone attack.
Since the Taliban entered Kabul on August 15 last year, there have been frequent and credible reports of al-Qaeda fighters crossing the Pakistani border into Afghanistan, but there have also been repeated pledges by the Taliban to fight terrorism.
The Taliban also accuses the United States of violating the agreement signed between them in its attack on a residential neighborhood in Kabul. A statement issued by the movement’s spokesman warned that “the repetition of such actions will damage existing opportunities.”
This watershed moment comes at a time when the Taliban, a year after seizing power, is still struggling for international legitimacy and recognition. And they may not want to jeopardize any fragile progress.
The United States and other Western powers seem stuck: How can they help the Afghan people, mired in a deepening humanitarian crisis, at a time when many Taliban leaders are still under US terrorism sanctions?
US interests in the region also include the fight against militant groups such as the Islamic State, which is a common enemy of the Taliban and the United States.
The Taliban movement, since seizing power in Kabul, has been following a dangerous political line.
The question is how do they maintain their place in the global jihadist movement, including their long-standing ties to al-Qaeda?
Social media is now awash with accusations of another war crime by the United States and an alleged extrajudicial killing.
How will they complete their transformation from a rebel group to an internationally respected government while maintaining their credentials as a hard-line conservative group?
That hanging wire is now vibrating. And the world is watching.