Taliban Organizes Anti-Biden Protest with ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ for Slain al-Qaeda Chief

Protest against the US airstrike killing al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan,
Bakhtar News Agency/Government of Afghanistan
Frances Martel

The Taliban organized large protests on Friday against America and leftist President Joe Biden in response to the U.S. military eliminating al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, last weekend.

Al-Zawahiri, who took over the terrorist organization after the demise of Osama bin Laden, was reportedly living openly in the wealthy Kabul neighborhood of Sherpur for months. The United Nations said in a report shortly before Biden announced the airstrike that it was “likely” that Taliban terrorists were giving al-Zawahiri safe harbor.

Biden announced on Monday that a drone strike had killed al-Zawahiri with minimal property damage and no other casualties while he was on his Sherpur balcony. The Taliban, which took over Afghanistan after Biden broke a Trump-era agreement that would have ended the Afghan War in May, responded to the news by first “strongly condemn[ing]” the airstrike, then claiming that Taliban jihadists “no information” that al-Zawahiri had entered the country or was living in Kabul. Reports citing unspecified U.S. intelligence indicate that, in addition to living conspicuously in the Taliban’s capital city, the terror chief may have been living in a home owned by a senior member of the Taliban- and al-Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani Network.

The Taliban and al-Qaeda are both Sunni jihadist organizations with decades of friendly relations. The Trump-era agreement between the Taliban and Washington, known commonly as the “Doha agreement” after the city it was brokered it, would have required the Taliban to cut all ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

The Afghan government’s Bakhtar News Agency published multiple photos and videos from Kabul, Kandahar, and other major Afghan population centers of large numbers of men convening to condemn the airstrike against Zawahiri. The mobs appear holding up banners with unflattering photos of Joe Biden and chanting anti-American slogans. Bakhtar, which serves as a Taliban mouthpiece, claimed “hundreds of thousands” of people had attended the protests nationwide.

Pajhwok, an independent Afghan news agency, listed at least nine provinces organizing protests against America taking action to remove the leader of al-Qaeda from the battlefield: Kabul, Farah, Nangarhar, Kandahar, Khost, Badghis, Balkh, and Logar, in addition to “a number of other provinces.” Its report indicated that the protests appeared to be organized by mosques to follow Friday prayers.

“We ask the US to give up on Afghanistan and leave this country alone; America has no right to attack our country,” one protester told Pajhwok.

Another participant in the Farah protest, a preacher at the local mosque, appeared to deny that the airstrike had occurred at all.

“America should take back its lie; Joe Biden is lying that he made Ayman al-Zawahiri a martyr,” the preacher was quoted as saying.

Afghanistan’s Ariana News, reporting from several of the cities in question, noted that some protesters added to their demands that America “adhere to the Doha agreement,” echoing the Taliban’s first statement on the airstrike released Tuesday.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns this attack for any reason and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote in the statement published Tuesday. “Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region. Repeating such actions will damage available opportunities.”

Mujahid himself had pronounced the Doha agreement effectively nullified after Biden unilaterally decided to extend America’s presence in Afghanistan beyond the May 1, 2021, deadline the Trump administration had agreed to.

Mujahid’s first statement this week did not mention Zawahiri. On Thursday, he published a second statement on behalf of the Taliban denying any knowledge or involvement in the al-Qaeda chief’s presence in the Taliban’s capital city.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [the Taliban] has no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in Kabul,” Mujahid said. “The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has instructed the investigative and intelligence agencies to conduct a comprehensive and serious investigation into the various aspects of the incident.”

Protests aside, Taliban “defense minister” Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said in an interview this week that America should recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and urged the American public to pressure its government to support the Taliban.

“There are more countries in the world that pose more danger than Afghanistan to America, but still America recognized them officially. I think that recognition is a positive step toward a bigger change,” Mujahid told NPR, according to Afghanistan’s Ariana News.

“I ask from the nation of America to put pressure on the government,” he added, if the impediment to recognition was the lack of political capital in America to do so.

The Taliban overthrew the U.S.-recognized government of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, after then-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The Taliban’s conquest of the entire Afghan territory occurred rapidly after Biden announced he would keep American troops in the country beyond May 1, breaking the Doha agreement.

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