Denial contradicts US officials who say al-Qaida leader was staying at home of Taliban leader’s aide
The Taliban leadership has said they did not know that al-Qaida boss
Under the Doha agreement, the Taliban promised the US that Afghanistan would not host terror groups that threatened the US and its allies. If the Taliban denial seems barely plausible, it was perhaps the only way out of a political bind created by Zawahiri’s assassination. Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s designated delegate to the UN who is based in Doha, said the regime was investigating both whether Zawahiri had been in Kabul, and whether he had been killed, and would share its findings.
However, the statement condemned Washington for “invad[ing] our territory and violat[ing] all international principles” with the attack, and made a barely veiled warning that it would consider retaliation in case of future drone strikes.
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