The Leader of the Islamist Terrorist Organization Al-Qaeda Has Been Killed

The United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Islamist terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, in a drone strike in Afghanistan. Zawahiri had merged his Egyptian Islamic Jihad into Osama bin Laden’s organization in the 1990s, served as its operational commander and has led the organization since the latter’s death in 2011. Al-Qaeda was responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the deadliest in history, among many other attacks before and since. It has affiliates around the Islamic world, as does its offshoot, the Islamic State. The U.S. led an international coalition against the Taliban de facto regime that controlled most of Afghanistan because it had harbored the terrorist organization, overthrowing the Taliban by 2002 and keeping them regaining power until the American-led withdrawal last year. The U.S. has continued the Global War on Terrorism against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Syria and Somalia, although at a low intensity. The disastrous Trump-Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan allowed the Taliban, which is intertwined with Islamist terrorists, to regain power and again provide safe haven for its Islamist terrorist allies, while diminishing the of intelligence or means for U.S. and its allies to target al-Qaeda, while betraying Afghan and other allies. Zawahiri was able to command his organization from the downtown of the Taliban-led Afghan capital for months, surely with the Taliban’s knowledge and approval, despite their pledge not to harbor terrorists again. The withholding of international recognition of the Taliban and of frozen funds by the U.S. is thus validated. Drone strikes are effective at killing the enemy, but not as much as an intelligence-gathering tool that a raid with special forces that also captures documents, computers, videos, etc. Killing the head of al-Qaeda is a major blow to the organization and victory in the war, but must be followed up with the eradication of al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists from Afghanistan, lest the poor central Asian State once again be a source of terror for the world. And the Taliban must be held accountable for their complicity.