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IEA was ‘unaware’ of al-Zawahiri having been in Kabul
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) leaders on Thursday issued a statement on the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and said they had no information about his “arrival and stay” in Kabul.
US President Joe Biden said Monday they killed al-Zawahiri with a missile fired from a drone while he stood on a balcony at his Kabul hideout in the suburb of Sherpur on Sunday.
According to a statement, the IEA said it had “no knowledge of al-Zawahiri’s arrival and residence in Kabul.”
The leadership of the IEA has ordered the intelligence agencies to conduct serious and comprehensive investigations into various aspects of the mentioned incident, the statement read.
“There is no danger from Afghanistan to any country, including America, the Islamic Emirate wants the implementation of the Doha Agreement and the violation of this agreement must end,” the statement read.
“The fact that America invaded our territory and violated all international principles, we strongly condemn the action once again. If such action is repeated, the responsibility of any consequences will be on the United States of America.”
This comes after Reuters reported earlier Thursday that a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that Washington would continue targeting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to ensure the country would not again become a refuge for “terrorists plotting against the United States.”
“We will remain vigilant and take action as needed, just like we did this week,” warned the official, who said that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration still would engage with the Taliban (IEA) “when it can help advance American interests.”
Reuters also reported that an IEA source said meetings between high-level IEA members were being held.
The official, who said there had been lengthy leadership discussions for two days, declined to be identified. He did not confirm that al-Zawahiri was in the house that the missile struck.
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor, was closely involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and was one of the world’s most wanted men.
Another IEA official confirmed the high-level meetings but said he did not know what was being discussed and he did not believe al-Zawahiri was in the house, Reuters reported.
In response to the US airstrike in Kabul, China has meanwhile said that the fight against terrorism should not harm the sovereignty of other countries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China stated that in the fight against terrorism, no double standards should be used.
At the same time, Pakistan, in response to the reports that Pakistan helped the US in this air attack, said that Islamabad had no role in it and that this issue should be discussed between the US and Afghanistan.
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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