Al Qaeda chief Aiman al-Zawahiri could also be in border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan: UN report

A big a part of the Al-Qaeda management resides within the Afghanistan and Pakistan border area, together with the group’s elusive chief Aiman al-Zawahiri, who might be alive however too frail to be featured in propaganda, in accordance with a United Nations report.
The report, issued on Friday, stated that giant numbers of Al-Qaeda fighters and different international extremist components aligned with the Taliban are situated in varied components of Afghanistan.
Member states reported {that a} important a part of Al-Qaeda management stays based mostly within the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the place the core is joined by and works intently with Al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent, the twelfth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team stated.
Al Qaeda chief Aiman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri, is believed to be situated someplace within the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Previous reviews of his dying as a result of unwell well being haven’t been confirmed.
“One member state reviews that he’s most likely alive however too frail to be featured in propaganda, the report stated, with out figuring out the nation.
It stated Al-Qaeda’s technique within the close to time period is assessed as sustaining its conventional protected haven in Afghanistan for the Al-Qaeda core management.
The Monitoring Team famous assessments which have prompt a longer-term Al-Qaeda core technique of “strategic endurance for a time period earlier than it could search to plan assaults towards worldwide targets once more.
This state of affairs is untested towards said Taliban commitments to ban such actions.
Al-Qaeda, together with Al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent, is reported to quantity within the vary of a number of dozen to 500 individuals.
Al-Qaeda core’s membership is of non-Afghan origin, consisting primarily of nationals from North Africa and the Middle East.
Member states assess that formal communication between senior Al-Qaeda and Taliban officers is at present rare, one member state reported that there’s common communication between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda on points associated to the peace course of.
The report stated Al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent operates underneath the Taliban umbrella from Kandahar, Helmand (notably Baramcha) and Nimruz Provinces.
The group reportedly consists of primarily Afghan and Pakistani nationals, but additionally people from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.
It stated the present chief of Al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent is Osama Mahmood, who is just not listed, and succeeded the late Asim Umar.
The group is reported to be such an natural’ or important a part of the insurgency that it could be troublesome, if not not possible, to separate it from its Taliban allies. Several member states characterised this relationship by noting that the spouse of the previous chief of Al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent, Asim Umar, was amongst 5,000 Taliban prisoners freed by the Afghan Government in 2020 as a part of the Doha settlement, it stated.
The report added that Al-Qaeda continued to undergo attrition throughout the interval underneath evaluate – between May 2020 and April 2021 – with numerous senior figures killed, usually alongside Taliban associates whereas co-located with them.
The main part of the Taliban in coping with Al-Qaeda is the Haqqani Network. Ties between the 2 teams stay shut, based mostly on ideological alignment, relationships solid by widespread battle and intermarriage, the report stated.
It added that the Taliban has begun to tighten its management over Al-Qaeda by gathering data on international terrorist fighters and registering and limiting them.
However, it has not made any concessions on this regard that it couldn’t simply and rapidly reverse, and it’s not possible to evaluate with confidence that the Taliban will reside as much as its dedication to suppress any future worldwide risk emanating from Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida and like-minded militants proceed to have a good time developments in Afghanistan as a victory for the Taliban’s trigger and thus for international radicalism.
In May 2020, Al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent launched an Eid al-Fitr audio message during which it portrayed the Doha settlement for example of divine victory and reward for pursuing jihad.
While each organisations are anticipated to keep up a posture of distance and discretion for so long as such is required for the achievement of Taliban aims, Al-Qaeda nonetheless stands to learn from renewed credibility on the again of Taliban beneficial properties.
“It will be important for the international community to monitor any sign of Afghanistan again becoming a destination for extremists with both regional and international agendas,” it stated.
Regionally, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-Ok) technique is coordinated by the Al-Sadiq workplace, which covers the Khorasan area of Central and South Asia (together with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Central Asian republics).
While rare, ISIL-Ok nonetheless maintains communications with ISIL core, however funding assist to the Khorasan department from the core is believed to have successfully dried up, it stated.
Since June 2020, ISIL-Ok has had an bold new chief, Shahab al-Muhajir, who is just not listed, and it stays energetic and harmful, notably whether it is ready, by positioning itself as the only real pure rejectionist group in Afghanistan, to recruit disaffected Taliban and different militants to swell its ranks.