--- title: Zawahiri Strike Exposes Taliban 'VIP Treatment' for Al-Qaeda description: 'One can only imagine the kind of treatment that other Al Qaeda officials and fighters are getting,' says one counterterrorism expert. canonical: https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-08-03T16:35:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:38:08.752Z article:section: Politics og:title: Zawahiri Strike Exposes Taliban 'VIP Treatment' for Al-Qaeda og:description: “One can only imagine the kind of treatment that other Al Qaeda officials and fighters are getting,” says one expert. og:url: https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1379be215f937177/698a344f09208f3f054196a3/GettyImages-1242285488.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Security measures after US drone strike in Kabul og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Zawahiri Strike Exposes Taliban 'VIP Treatment' for Al-Qaeda twitter:description: “One can only imagine the kind of treatment that other Al Qaeda officials and fighters are getting,” says one expert. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1379be215f937177/698a344f09208f3f054196a3/GettyImages-1242285488.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 02:14 video:published: 2022-08-02 section: world topics: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, U.S. drone strike, Afghanistan, counterterrorism, 9/11 attacks, embassy bombings, Osama bin Laden genre: news, presidential address tones: resolute, solemn, determined, formal emotions: determination (high), anger (medium), relief (medium) sentiment: neutral audience: general news audiences, policy observers, military and national security readers, Americans concerned with terrorism people: Joe Biden, Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden organizations: al-Qaeda, United States government content_suitability: death [00:00-02:14]; violence [00:25-01:32]; war [00:00-02:14]; terrorism [00:25-02:14] transcript_source: automatic transcription transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # The Zawahiri Strike Revealed How the Taliban Has Given Al-Qaeda 'VIP Treatment' in Afghanistan > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fadc533d-a017-4f1b-8284-7adecc947b71&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahri Killed in U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan [Watch (HLS stream): Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahri Killed in U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ygSrQVQP.m3u8) (2:14)  _Published 2022-08-02. President Joe Biden on Monday confirmed that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, declaring “justice has been delivered.”_ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary A U.S. presidential address announces that an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The speaker describes Zawahri's role as bin Laden's deputy and his involvement in attacks on Americans, including 9/11, the USS Cole bombing, and the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The address frames the strike as justice delivered and warns that the United States will pursue any threat to its people. ## Key points - A U.S. airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday killed the Emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, carried out at the president's direction. (00:00) - Zawahri was bin Laden's deputy and was with him throughout, serving as his number two man at the time of the 9/11 attacks. (00:15) - Zawahri was deeply involved in planning 9/11, which murdered 2,977 people on American soil. (00:25) - Zawahri was described as the mastermind behind attacks on Americans, including the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors. (00:25) - Zawahri played a key role in bombing U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, an attack the speaker says killed 224 people. (00:55) - From hiding, Zawahri coordinated al-Qaeda's branches worldwide and set priorities calling for attacks against the United States. (01:20) - In recent weeks Zawahri released videos calling on followers to attack the United States and its allies. (01:32) - The speaker states that no matter how long it takes or where someone hides, the United States will find and take out anyone who threatens its people. (02:02) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:15] Announcement of Zawahri's killing. The president announces that a U.S. airstrike in Kabul killed al-Qaeda's emir, Ayman al-Zawahri. - [00:15 to 00:55] Zawahri's role with bin Laden and 9/11. The speaker describes Zawahri as bin Laden's deputy and his involvement in planning the 9/11 attacks and the USS Cole bombing. - [00:55 to 01:20] Embassy bombings and years of violence. The speaker recounts the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and Zawahri's continued leadership of al-Qaeda after bin Laden's death. - [01:20 to 01:32] Coordinating attacks from hiding. Zawahri is said to have directed al-Qaeda's branches and set priorities calling for attacks on the United States. - [01:32 to 02:14] Justice delivered and U.S. resolve. The speaker declares justice has been delivered and vows the United States will pursue anyone who threatens Americans. ## Key quotes - [00:00] President Joe Biden: "on Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully concluded an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed the Emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri." - [00:15] President Joe Biden: "He was his number two man as deputy at the time the terrorist attack of 9-11." - [01:20] President Joe Biden: "From hiding, he coordinated al-Qaeda's branches and all around the world" - [01:32] President Joe Biden: "He made videos including in recent weeks calling for his followers to attack the United States and our allies." - [02:02] President Joe Biden: "no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out." ## Questions this video answers - Who was killed in the U.S. airstrike in Kabul? [00:00] - What was Ayman al-Zawahri's role in al-Qaeda before his death? [00:15] - What attacks against Americans is Zawahri said to have been involved in? [00:25] - How did Zawahri direct al-Qaeda's operations while in hiding? [01:20] - What does the U.S. say it will do to people who threaten Americans? [02:02] ## Content suitability - death [00:00-02:14]: Killing of a named terrorist leader in an airstrike, with references to deaths of 2,977 people in 9/11 and 224 in embassy bombings. - violence [00:25-01:32]: Describes attacks killing American sailors, diplomats and civilians, including the USS Cole and embassy bombings. - war [00:00-02:14]: Military airstrike in Afghanistan and ongoing counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda. - terrorism [00:25-02:14]: Discussion of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and abroad and threats of future attacks.  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Aug 3, 2022 4:35 PM UTC President Joe Biden on Monday confirmed that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, declaring “justice has been delivered.”  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Aug 3, 2022 4:35 PM UTC The killing of [Ayman al-Zawahiri](https://time.com/6202703/biden-al-zawahiri-al-qaeda-afghanistan/) on a balcony in Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday morning demonstrated the deadly power and reach of U.S. intelligence services, even a full year after President Biden withdrew all U.S. forces from the country. But one aspect of the assassination is alarming counterterrorism experts: its precise location. The fact that Al Qaeda’s top leader was living with his family in an expensive neighborhood in downtown Kabul breaks into public view the degree to which the Taliban has given Al Qaeda’s leadership license to operate inside the country and, in some cases, even placing them in high-level positions in the government. “We believe that there were senior members of the Haqqani Network who are affiliated with the Taliban who did know that al-Zawahiri was in Kabul,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, said on [NBC News](https://www.today.com/video/wh-security-adviser-details-mission-to-track-down-al-qaeda-leader-145301573871) on Tuesday. “There may have been other members of the Taliban that did not know.” Zawahiri played a key role in planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and took over Al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011\. Biden administration officials have said Zawahiri [remained in charge of the terrorist group](https://time.com/6202703/biden-al-zawahiri-al-qaeda-afghanistan/) up until his death on Sunday. **Read More**: [_Joe Biden Wants to Honor 9/11—By Moving On From National Security Priorities That Defined the Past 20 Years (2021)_](https://time.com/6097043/joe-biden-september-11-legacy/) Michael Allen, a former staff director of the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2013 and a former senior official on President George W. Bush’s national security council, says the circumstances of the Zahawiri strike bring to mind the hard line that the Bush administration took on countries allowing terrorists within their borders in the wake of the 9/11 attack. “The Bush doctrine was, if you harbor a terrorist, we’re going to treat you as if you are a terrorist,” Allen says. “This isn’t just any garden-variety terrorist. This was an individual who was in on the plot for 9/11 and the embassy bombings as well.” The Zawahiri strike parallels in some ways Bin Laden’s assassination 11 years ago in a nighttime raid by U.S. special operations forces. The founder of Al Qaeda was living in a walled compound in northeastern Pakistan less than a mile from Pakistan’s top military academy. Bin Laden had been hiding there for six years, raising questions about whether Pakistan’s intelligence services knew he was there and turned a blind eye. In 2013, Al Jazeera reported on a [classified report](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/7/8/leaked-report-shows-bin-ladens-hidden-life) from a commission set up by the Pakistani government to investigate the circumstances of bin Laden’s death. The report found “routine” incompetence at nearly every level of government that allowed the terrorist leader to live in multiple locations within the country for nearly a decade. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a [statement](https://www.state.gov/the-death-of-ayman-al-zawahiri/) on Monday that, “by hosting and sheltering” the leader of Al Qaeda in Kabul, the Taliban breached the terms of the Doha agreement it signed in February 2020 with the Trump administration. Under the terms of that deal, President Donald Trump pledged to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban agreed not to allow its territory to be used by terror groups that threaten the United States. “The Taliban grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries,” Blinken said. Zawahiri was “being given VIP treatment” in Kabul, says Bruce Hoffman, an expert on counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations who has studied terrorism and the evolution of Al Qaeda for decades. “One can only imagine the kind of treatment that other Al Qaeda officials and fighters are getting,” Hoffman says. Three dozen Al Qaeda senior leaders were released from jail when the Taliban swept to power, Hoffman says. Sirajuddin Haqqani, a long-standing close ally of Al Qaeda, now runs Afghanistan’s interior ministry. Other allies have been placed in charge of the country’s intelligence services and refugee services and given important administrative duties in Afghanistan’s provinces, Hoffman says. **Read More**: [_America’s War in Afghanistan Is Over. But in the Horn of Africa, Its War on Terror Rages On (2021)_](https://time.com/6102688/war-on-terror-after-afghanistan/) [](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/emanuele-satolli-djibouti-camp-lemonnier-7.jpg) Counterterrorism experts warn that the Taliban’s support for Al Qaeda is likely to go beyond just empowering their leaders. Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the editor of the Long War Journal, says the Taliban may again allow Al Qaeda to set up training camps in the country and once again use Afghanistan as its home base, plotting terror attacks from there as well as managing its fighters in insurgencies in Yemen, Syria and throughout Africa. “The fact that he was killed there shows that Al Qaeda believes Afghanistan is safe enough for its leaders to regroup there. They’re getting rest, they’re having access to all of the Taliban state,” Roggio says. Even before the Taliban retook Kabul last summer, there was evidence that it previously allowed Al Qaeda to train fighters in areas of Afghanistan under its control. In 2015, while the U.S. military was still operating inside the country, the Taliban allowed Al Qaeda to run training camps in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, Roggio [says](https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/06/state-notes-severely-degraded-al-qaeda-operated-large-training-camp-in-afghanistan.php). The U.S. military raided the camp in October of that year, killing dozens of Al Qaeda trainees, Roggio says, citing public State Department[ documents](https://www.longwarjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-State-Department-Country-Report-on-Terrorism.pdf). He described the conditions in Afghanistan as ripe for similar training camps to be established. “Al Qaeda now has the time and space to reorganize, regroup and resume attacks against the West,” he says. A U.N. Security Council report released July 15 assessed that Al Qaeda has a “safe haven” in Afghanistan and has ambitions “to be recognized again as the leader of global jihadis.” The group, the [report ](https://daccess-ods.un.org/tmp/6156923.17485809.html)said, “is not viewed as posing an immediate international threat from its safe haven in Afghanistan because it lacks an external operational capability and does not currently wish to cause the Taliban international difficulty or embarrassment.” White House officials say that Biden sent a deadly signal with the killing of Zawahiri, and Al Qaeda leaders shouldn’t feel secure operating in Afghanistan. “I think if you were to ask some members of al Qaeda—ask them how safe they feel in Afghanistan right now, I think we proved to a fare-thee-well this weekend that it isn’t a safe haven and it isn’t going to be, going forward,” Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/"},"headline":"The Zawahiri Strike Revealed How the Taliban Has Given Al-Qaeda 'VIP Treatment' in Afghanistan","datePublished":"2022-08-03T16:35:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:38:08.752Z","description":"“One can only imagine the kind of treatment that other Al Qaeda officials and fighters are getting,” says one counterterrorism expert.","url":"https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/","keywords":["Biden Administration","Military","Foreign Policy","Joe Biden","White House","National Security","Second click"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1379be215f937177/698a344f09208f3f054196a3/GettyImages-1242285488.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1379be215f937177/698a344f09208f3f054196a3/GettyImages-1242285488.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Security measures after US drone strike in Kabul","caption":"Security measures after US drone strike in Kabul","creditText":"Haroon Sabawoon—Anadolu Agency via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/biden-administration/","name":"Biden Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/","name":"The Zawahiri Strike Revealed How the Taliban Has Given Al-Qaeda 'VIP Treatment' in Afghanistan"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahri Killed in U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan","description":"President Joe Biden on Monday confirmed that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, declaring “justice has been delivered.”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ygSrQVQP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2022-08-02T02:43:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ygSrQVQP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/","duration":"PT2M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6203143/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-taliban-treatment/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```