Taliban, US spar over al-Qaeda presence in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban on Thursday rejected a top American general’s assessment that the al-Qaeda leadership is still based in Afghanistan, insisting that no foreign fighters linked to the group are present in the country.

The contention, analysts say, underscored a long-running trust deficit between the Afghan insurgency and the United States despite their February 29 landmark agreement aimed at ending the nearly 19-year-old war in Afghanistan.

“Those Arab or other (foreign) fighters who were based in Afghanistan under the banner of al-Qaeda during the rule of the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) are no longer here,” said a statement published on the Taliban’s official website. The Taliban reaction comes a day after the commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was still based in the war-ravaged country, though he did not mention him by name.

General Kenneth McKenzie told a forum hosted by the Washington-based Middle East Institute on Wednesday that he was not sure if the Taliban would be able to prevent groups like al-Qaeda from using Afghan soil for future terrorist attacks against the United States.

“The home of al-Qaeda is in eastern Afghanistan right up against the border (with Pakistan), (a) very small presence there, but the global leader is there,” McKenzie said. “He (Zawahiri) doesn’t have the ability to talk much. But he does actually, we think, he is probably physically up in that area somewhere,” he added. Washington has offered a reward of $25 million to bring Zawahiri to justice.

For its part, the Taliban reiterated they are committed under the “historic” agreement with the U.S. not to allow anyone to use Afghan soil for attacks against America or any other country.