- Sherpur, or the town of thieves, was the name given to it by Kabulis. The Taliban took over some of the empty villas near some high-walled Western embassies.
- Owners of nearby buildings told us they had been ordered to close their rooftops. Ayman al-death, Zawahiri’s a top target on America’s wanted list, had been reported previously.
- He was said to be a recluse in the rugged terrain along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
The first signs of a months-long operation emerged when an attack rocked Kabul’s centre in the early hours of Sunday morning: we heard two thunderous blasts on our street nearby.
Speculation raged about who or what had struck Sherpur’s “empty house.”
It is a neighbourhood that has become notorious over the last two decades for its garish multi-story villas, which Kabul residents have mocked as the stronghold of corrupt warlords and officials, a gaudy symbol of the spoils of an ugly war.
Choorpur, or the town of thieves, was the name given to it by Kabulis. The Taliban took over some of the empty villas near some high-walled Western embassies, which also closed when the Taliban took control.
Every day, new puzzle pieces emerged: a possible strike on an Islamic State target; the use of a US drone, which raised even more questions; and the involvement of US forces on the ground.
The mystery was solved early Tuesday morning.
We attempted to approach the area on a main road leading into the street, past Spinney’s luxury supermarket and the Afghan Ghazanfar bank, as Kabul awoke to the news that the US had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike.
A single Taliban guard crossed his arms angrily to warn us away.
We walked around the back of the villa from a side street.
Guards and workers in neighbouring buildings confirmed which house was hit on Sunday; balconies protruding from the top floor were now covered in green plastic sheeting.
Was there any activity or residents at this location?
“The house was empty,” the refrain went. Was this a rehearsed response, a repeat of the Taliban’s official statement?
Owners of nearby buildings told us that they had been ordered hours before to close their rooftops to everyone, including their own employees.
As word of Zawahiri’s assassination spread like an electric current on social media, the scene of this explosive moment appeared strangely quiet.
On this hot summer day, traffic flowed along the surrounding tree-lined streets. But as the minutes passed, more journalists arrived, more passers-by stopped, and more Taliban guards appeared.
As we stood on the main street, one armed Talib warned a colleague, “If you don’t listen to me, I’ll speak to you through my gun.”
A group of Afghan and foreign journalists approached us, one in tears after an argument on the main road leading to the front of the house.
Her equipment had been forcibly removed. The item was then returned.
What had previously been whispers became more audible.
There was talk that Arabs had been seen moving through these streets in recent months. Nobody dared to say much about it.
A nearby local journalist told us: “In the last few months, we’ve seen non-Afghan residents in this neighbourhood. They are illiterate in the local languages. We have no idea who they are.”
There are many questions, conspiracies, and possible outcomes now.
Ayman al-death, Zawahiri’s a top target on America’s wanted list, had been reported previously, including last year, when he was said to have died of illness.
Zawahiri was al-most Qaeda’s prominent ideologue and spokesperson.
He was said to be a recluse in the rugged terrain along the Afghan-Pakistan border if he was still alive.
But it has now been revealed that he was a guest of the Taliban leadership, living in the villa said to belong to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting Taliban interior minister who is sanctioned by the US.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was he?
BACKGROUND: US drone strike kills al-Qaeda leader
There is a resemblance to the US assassination of Zawahiri’s brother-in-law, Osama Bin Laden, who was hiding in plain sight in a villa in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, just down the street from a Pakistani military academy, in 2011.
In Afghan Pashtun tradition, there is also an echo of the Taliban’s retort to the US after the 9/11 attacks that Bin Laden was only their honoured guest.
The 2020 US-Taliban agreement, signed in the Gulf state of Qatar after nearly two years of tortuous negotiations, was supposed to resolve this critical question.
We were repeatedly told during the talks that the Taliban’s commitment to not allowing Afghanistan to become a safe haven would be spelled out in black and white.
However, the deal that emerged, complete with secret annexes, was not so straightforward.
The Taliban has vowed to prevent any attacks on US soil from taking place from their territory.
They never explicitly agreed to cut ties with their fellow jihadis, including Zawahiri, who had sworn allegiance to the Taliban leader, or emir, Haibatullah Akhundzada, like other al-Qaeda leaders.
There have been repeated and credible reports of al-Qaeda fighters crossing the Pakistani border into Afghanistan since the Taliban swept into Kabul on 15 August last year, but there have also been repeated Taliban pledges to fight terrorism.
The Taliban also accuses the US of breaking their agreement by attacking a Kabul residential neighbourhood. A Taliban spokesman warned that “repeating such actions will harm the existing opportunities.”
A map depicting the location of Ayman al-residence. Zawahiri’s
This watershed moment comes at a time when the Taliban are still struggling to establish international legitimacy and recognition a year after seizing power. They may not want to jeopardise any fragile progress.
The United States and other Western powers have also been caught in a bind: how do they assist the people of Afghanistan, who are in the grip of a worsening humanitarian crisis, while many Taliban leaders remain subject to US terrorism sanctions?
American interests in the region also include combating extremist groups such as the Islamic State, which they share with the Taliban.
Since taking power in Kabul, the Taliban have been walking a political tightrope.
Social media is now ablaze with accusations of yet another US war crime, this time involving an alleged extrajudicial killing.
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