Afghan Authorities Fail to Find Body of Al-Qaeda Leader Killed by US in Kabul, Spokesman Says

KABUL (Sputnik) - The Afghan authorities did not find the body of leader of the Al-Qaeda* terrorist group Ayman al-Zawahiri at the site of a US missile strike in the Afghan capital Kabul, said Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban movement (under UN sanctions over terrorist activities).
Sputnik
Earlier in the week, the Taliban administration said it did not have any information about al-Zawahiri's arrival and stay in Kabul.
"We did not find any body in the place that was hit by the US drone," Mujahid told reporters.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing a senior US administration official, that al-Zawahiri had been living in central Kabul in recent months near the premises of acting Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. According to the source, al-Zawahiri moved to Kabul in the fall of 2021, and lived under the protection of Haqqani.
US Warns of Surge in ‘Anti-American Violence’ After Al-Qaeda Leader Al-Zawahiri’s Killing
The White House confirmed that the US carried out a counter-terrorism operation in Kabul on July 30, as a result of which al-Zawahiri, who ruled the terror group after the death of Osama bin Laden, was neutralized by two Hellfire missiles fired from a drone.
*Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
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