Zawahiri in Af-Pak border area, alive but too frail: UN

United Nations, June 5: A significant part of the Al-Qaeda leadership resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region, including the group’s elusive leader Aiman alZawahiri, who is probably alive but too frail to be featured in propaganda, according to a United Nations report.

The report, issued on Friday, said that large numbers of Al-Qaeda fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan. Member states reported that a significant part of Al-Qaeda leadership remains based in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the core is joined by and works closely with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, the twelfth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said.

Al Qaeda leader Aiman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri, is believed to be located somewhere in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Previous reports of his death due to ill health have not been confirmed. “One member state reports that he is probably alive but too frail to be featured in propaganda, the report said, without identifying the country.

It said Al-Qaeda’s strategy in the near term is assessed as maintaining its traditional safe haven in Afghanistan for the AlQaeda core leadership.

The Monitoring Team noted assessments that have suggested a longerterm Al-Qaeda core strategy of “strategic patience for a period of time before it would seek to plan attacks against international targets again”.

This scenario is untested against stated Taliban commitments to prohibit such activities.

Al-Qaeda is reported to number in the range of several dozen to 500 persons.