Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri probably in Afghan, Pak border area, most likely alive however too frail: UN report

A major a part of the Al-Qaeda management resides within the Afghanistan and Pakistan border area, together with the group’s elusive chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who’s “probably alive but too frail to be featured in propaganda,” in response to a United Nations report.The report, issued on Friday, stated that enormous numbers of Al-Qaeda fighters and different international extremist parts aligned with the Taliban are positioned in varied components of Afghanistan.”Member states reported that a significant part of Al-Qaeda leadership remains based in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the core is joined by and works closely with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent,” the twelfth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team stated.Al Qaeda chief “Ayman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri, is believed to be located somewhere in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Previous reports of his death due to ill health have not been confirmed.”One member state experiences that he’s most likely alive however too frail to be featured in propaganda,” the report said, without identifying the country.It said Al-Qaeda’s strategy in the near term is assessed as maintaining its traditional safe haven in Afghanistan for the Al-Qaeda core leadership.The Monitoring Team noted assessments that have suggested a longer-term Al-Qaeda core strategy of “strategic endurance” for a period of time before it would seek to plan attacks against international targets again.”This situation is untested in opposition to said Taliban commitments to ban such actions.”Al-Qaeda, including Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, is reported to number in the range of several dozen to 500 persons.Al-Qaeda core’s membership is of non-Afghan origin, consisting mainly of nationals from North Africa and the Middle East.”Member states assess that formal communication between senior Al-Qaeda and Taliban officers is at the moment 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 said Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent operates under the Taliban umbrella from Kandahar, Helmand (notably Baramcha) and Nimruz Provinces.”The group reportedly consists of primarily Afghan and Pakistani nationals, but in addition people from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.”It said the current leader of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent is Osama Mahmood, who is 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 unattainable, 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 said.The report added that Al-Qaeda continued to suffer attrition during the period under review – between May 2020 and April 2021 – with a number of senior figures killed, often alongside Taliban associates while 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 cast by widespread wrestle and intermarriage,” the report said.It added that the Taliban has begun to tighten its control over Al-Qaeda by gathering information on foreign terrorist fighters and registering and restricting them.”However, it has not made any concessions on this regard that it couldn’t simply and rapidly reverse, and it’s unattainable to evaluate with confidence that the Taliban will stay 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 fun developments in Afghanistan as a victory for the Taliban’s trigger and thus for world radicalism.”In May 2020, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent released an Eid al-Fitr audio message in which it portrayed the Doha agreement as an 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 goals, Al-Qaeda nonetheless stands to learn from renewed credibility on the again of Taliban positive factors.”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 “ambitious new leader, Shahab al-Muhajir”, who is just not listed, and it stays energetic and harmful, significantly whether it is in a position, by positioning itself as the only pure rejectionist group in Afghanistan, to recruit disaffected Taliban and different militants to swell its ranks.