Drone Strike That Killed al Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri Raises Tactical Questions on Threat From Afghanistan

The CIA drone strike that killed al Qaeda’s leader over the weekend demonstrates potent U.S. capabilities to target individual terror chieftains, but leaves unanswered the question of whether Washington can remotely thwart plots in Afghanistan before they become a threat.

Senior U.S. officials said that Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed in a strike in Kabul on Sunday morning by Hellfire missiles fired from a drone, wasn’t involved in planning al Qaeda terror operations at the time of his death, but rather offered guidance to the group and its many affiliates.

U.S. officials said the strike, almost a year after President Biden ordered the U.S. withdrawal, proved that an American presence in Afghanistan isn’t needed to hit global terror groups. But critics of the administration’s Afghanistan policy say the operation, while a welcome development in the long-term campaign to eliminate leaders of the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, didn’t demonstrate that the U.S. had the ability to respond to new threats that could emanate from the Taliban-ruled country following the American exit.