Eliminating Al-Qaeda Head No Way to Eradicate Terrorism in Afghanistan, Russian Ambassador Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The problem of terrorism in Afghanistan cannot be solved using means such as the elimination of the head of Al-Qaeda* since radicals are likely to join other terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State (IS, or ISIS, banned in Russia), Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov said.

"The problem is too complex to be resolved, for example, by such actions as the elimination of the leader of Al-Qaeda using an American drone. Such an operation was recently announced by [US President Joe] Biden," Zhirnov said.

Biden announced on August 1 that Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan on July 31. The Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) said it did not find al-Zawahiri's body and had no information about his alleged stay in Kabul.

"If this [al-Zawahiri’s elimination] was the case, then in the conditions in which Afghanistan was placed by the 20-year war with the United States, al-Qaeda radicals will most likely just join ISIS… I'm not even mentioning the fact that the aggressive violation of Afghanistan’s airspace by the Americans will not add to the Taliban’s trust in the United States in the fight against terrorism," Zhirnov said.

Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department Ivan Nechaev said on Thursday that Moscow is yet to confirm the accuracy of Washington's statements about the elimination of al-Zawahiri, as no evidence was provided to prove US claims that the al-Qaeda leader had indeed been neutralized by two Hellfire missiles fired from a drone.

*Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.