What is behind the elimination of the leader of al-Qaeda?
Author: Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of the Afghan Security Directorate
Sirajuddin Haqqani (Saturday, June 30) was reportedly taking part in peace talks between a 12-person delegation from the government of Pakistan and TTP (Tahriki Taliban Pakistan) leaders when a drone attack took place in the Wazir Akbarkhan district of Kabul.
According to sources, his personal guest house is located near the site of the attack, and according to reports published in some foreign media, the house where Ayman al-Zawahiri was attacked belongs to the Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.
After the attack, Siraj Haqqani went with a large convoy, including civilians, to the Charkh district of Logar province, and from there to other districts of Paktia province, in order to avoid a similar attack.
The question arises: if Sirajuddin Haqqani played a role in hiding Ayman al-Zawahiri, will he return to Kabul and remain a minister or not? And can he move freely?
On the other hand, this question comes to mind if Siraj Haqqani, through the mediation of General Bajwa (Pakistan Army Chief of Staff) and the ISI, is trying to restore relations with the US and remove him from the black list, did he want to achieve this goal by sharing information about Ayman al - Zawahiri?
It should be noted that Osama bin Laden's son and later Ayman al-Zawahiri's son made trips and meetings with Taliban leaders in Kabul last year, and these trips were not completely a secret.
The second possibility is that only Siraj Haqqani and the Haqqani group were involved in providing asylum to Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. The Quetta Council, led by Mullah Baradar, including Mullah Yaqub, is on the one hand trying to strengthen the relationship established in Doha with the United States so that before the annual meeting of the United Nations in September there is the necessary ground for the recognition of the Emirate of the Taliban and on the other side, reduce the growing power of Sirajuddin Haqqani. They shared information about the whereabouts of the leader of al-Qaeda with the Americans and in doing so killed two birds with one stone.
The Kandahar Taliban want, on the one hand, to isolate Siraj Haqqani and the Haqqani group, who never submitted to the Council of Quetta and consider themselves the conquerors of Kabul and became the actual and potential rulers of Afghanistan, and on the other hand, to fulfill their obligations under the Doha agreement with the United States.
The third scenario, which seems relatively weak, but given Pakistan's past duplicity, cannot be completely ruled out, is that Pakistan is on the verge of economic collapse and the Pakistani military is trying to attract US economic aid and save Pakistan, especially the army. This country is on the verge of collapse. From here, she provided information and allowed the United States of America to use its airspace or establish bases in Pakistan to attack Ayman al-Zawahiri.
At the same time, Pakistan again used the Taliban as “useful idiots” for its own benefits. It has been observed in the past that whenever Pakistan gets into trouble, it makes such a gift to Washington.
We must not forget that the United States of America, unlike in 2001, when it did not have sufficient information about the situation in Afghanistan, with a twenty-year presence in this country and huge investments in various technical aspects, may be able to obtain information from every alley of Kabul and other large cities. And with the use and cooperation of these resources and devices, they managed to obtain information and carry out this attack unilaterally.
In this case, it will be difficult for the Taliban to regain their lost confidence in the alleged fight against terrorism, otherwise, they will not submit to reforms and will not listen to the Afghan people and the international community, which will undoubtedly shorten the life of their emirate. This will cause either a white or bloody coup within their emirate. Do the events of the coming days at the national and international level make it clear whether this was a deal or is everything heading towards a confrontation?
