UN report: Al-Zawahiri increased outreach to al-Qaeda supporters with video & audio messages

UNITED NATIONS: A recent UN report had said that the core al-Qaeda leadership under Ayman al-Zawahiri was reported to remain in Afghanistan, and the terror group's leader had increased outreach to al-Qaeda supporters with a number of video and audio messages.

US President Joe Biden announced on Monday that al-Zawahiri, who took over the reins of al-Qaeda, after the killing of Osama bin Laden 11 years ago, was killed in an American drone strike carried out Saturday evening (New York time) at a house in Kabul.

The 30th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2610 (2021) concerning ISIL (Da'esh), al-Qaeda and associated individuals and entities, released last month had said that the terror group's leadership reportedly plays an advisory role with the Taliban, and the groups remain close.

It said al-Zawahiri had increased outreach to al-Qaeda supporters with a number of video and audio messages, including his own statement promising that al-Qaeda was equipped to compete with ISIL, in a bid to be recognised again as the leader of a global movement.

The 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2611 (2021) concerning the Taliban and other associated individuals and entities constituting a threat to the peace stability and security of Afghanistan, released in May had noted that the core al-Qaeda leadership under al-Zawahiri is reported to remain in Afghanistan, more specifically, the eastern region from Zabul Province north towards Kunar and along the border with Pakistan.

It said since August 2021, al-Zawahiri had appeared in eight videos.

Alluding to the hijab row in India, the report had said that in the most recent such video of al-Zawahiri, released on April 5, by al-Qaeda's As-Sahab Media Foundation, al-Zawahiri references the defiance of an Indian Muslim female in front of men protesting the hijab, an event that went viral in early February 2022.