Kabul fails to find body of Al-Qaeda chief killed in Afghanistan

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The authorities in Afghanistan could not find the body of the killed Al-Qaeda leader, notorious terrorist Ayman Al-Zawahiri at the site where the United States allegedly killed him in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday.

The Taliban said the body was not found anywhere where it should have been found, days after saying they had no information about his arrival and stay in Kabul.

In a televised address, Biden said the strike in Kabul, Afghanistan had been carried out on Saturday. "I gave the final approval to go get him," he said, adding that there had been no civilian casualties.

A senior administration official said Al-Zawahiri had been killed on the balcony of a house in Kabul in a drone strike, and that there had been no US boots on the ground in Afghanistan. 

In a "meticulously planned operation" - as proclaimed by US officials - the United States killed Al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. The US armed forces, which had occupied Afghanistan for 20 years before withdrawing in a humiliating manner last August, fired two Hellfire missiles from a UAV flying over Kabul, striking the terrorist organization leader's house and killing him.

"For several years the US government has been aware of a network that we assessed supported Zawahiri," a senior administration official told reporters.

The United States, however, only found out that Al-Zawahiri was in Afghanistan last year when they learned that his family, wife, daughter, and children moved to the Afghan capital.

The strike was carried out using a non-explosive version of Hellfire, the R9X, which deploys a series of knife-like blades from its fuselage and shreds its target. The "flying ginsu" missiles have been used several times by the United States to kill other targets in Washington's scope.

Diplomatic sources revealed Thursday to Al Mayadeen that the Taliban movement confirmed the killing Al-Zawahiri, saying reliable witnesses in the group confirmed that they saw his body.

However, the sources said Al-Zawahiri was not killed in the way Washington reported, indicating that the Al-Qaeda chief was killed as a result of a mysterious explosion that was not and cannot be disclosed.

Read next: Exclusive - Al-Zawahiri was not killed the way Washington reported

The official said that Al-Zawahiri's presence in the Afghan capital Kabul was a "clear violation" of a deal the Taliban had signed with the US in Doha in 2020 that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Reportedly, Washington's forces studied the construction of the home, finalizing a plan using a detailed model of Al-Zawahiri's safehouse in Afghanistan and presenting it to Biden on July 1.

Biden took the decision and issued the order on July 25, just days before the operation took place.