Ivan Nechaev, deputy director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, has stated that “serious” questions remain when it comes to the Biden administration’s announcement about the US killing al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Nechaev stressed that the US has not yet provided evidence of al-Zawahiri’s killing.
He added that “the aggressive actions of the US Air Force, which invaded the sovereign territory of Afghanistan, raise a number of serious questions.”
They pertain, in particular, to who allowed the US to use Afghan airspace for an airstrike on the Afghan capital Kabul, and who could be responsible for possible civilian casualties during such actions, according to the Russian diplomat.
The statement followed Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the ruling Taliban** movement, telling journalists last week that Afghan authorities did not find the body of al-Zawahiri at the site of the US missile strike in Kabul.
Earlier, the Taliban government said that they did not have any information about al-Zawahiri's arrival and stay in Kabul.
This came after US President Joe Biden announced that late last month, the US “successfully concluded an air strike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed” al-Zawahiri.
POTUS also stressed that the success of the counterterrorism operation ensures that Afghanistan will "never again ... become a terrorist safe haven because [Zawahiri] is gone."
He descried the al-Qaeda leader as a person who “carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests.”
The 71-year-old al-Zawahiri took over al-Qaeda after the death of Bin Laden in 2011. The two jointly plotted the 9/11 terrorist attacks that occurred in 2001, claiming the lives of almost 3,000 people.
* a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries
** a group is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities