KABUL: According to three Taliban sources, senior Taliban figures met on Wednesday to deliberate how to react to a US drone attack that the US claimed killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul.
The heaviest punch to the Taliban because Osama bin Laden was slain in Pakistan more than ten years ago was delivered on Sunday when Zawahiri was killed by a missile was fired from a drones while he was standing on a balcony at his hideout in Kabul, according to US authorities.
Zawahiri’s passing has not been verified by the Taliban.
Longtime Al Qaeda sympathisers, the group’s officials originally confirmed the drone strike on Sunday but said the target residence was vacant.
According to a Taliban leader with significant influence in Kabul, “there are talks at an extremely top standard on whether they ought to react to the drone strike and, in the event that they chose to, then what is the correct approach,”
The official declined to give his name but claimed that there had been in-depth leadership talks for two days. He did not state that Zawahiri was inside the home in which the rocket had been fired.
As the Taliban seeks international recognition and entry to billions of dollars in frozen accounts after defeating a US-backed government a year ago, how they respond might have a big impact.
