Posted on 04/22/2017 2:54:11 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Egyptian-born Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, is most likely hiding in Karachi under the protection of Pakistan's notorious spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, a United States media report said.
'Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has been protecting al-Zawahiri, a trained surgeon, since US forces evicted Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan in late 2001,' Newsweek said in a major investigative story claiming that its information is based on several authoritative sources.
'His most likely location today, they say: Karachi, the teeming port city of 26 million people on the Arabian Sea,' the weekly said.
This is for the first time in several years a news report has surfaced about the hiding location of the Al-Qaeda chief, who is Osama bin Laden's mentor and successor.
"Like everything about his location, there's no positive proof," Bruce Riedel, a 30-year Central Intelligence Agency veteran who was the top adviser on South Asia and the Middle East for the past four US presidents, told the magazine.
'There are pretty good indications, including some of the material found in Abbottabad (Pakistan)', where bin Laden was killed, 'that point in that direction', he added.
"This would be a logical place to hide out, where he would feel pretty comfortable that the Americans can't come and get him," he said.
Riedel told the weekly that Karachi would be a 'very hard' place for the US to conduct the kind of commando raid that got bin Laden on May 2, 2011.
"If he was in someplace along the border with Afghanistan, I think the temptation would be enormous to go after him. But in Karachi, that would be stunning and very difficult," Riedel said.
According to the weekly, the US had an unsuccessful drone strike against Al-Zawahiri in January 2016.
But the al-Qaeda chief survived, the weekly said, noting that its information was based on a source from Pakistan who requested anonymity for sharing the information.
"The drone hit next to the room where al-Zawahiri was staying. The shared wall collapsed, and debris from the explosion showered on him and broke his glasses, but luckily he was safe," the unnamed man told the magazine.
The man added that 'four of al-Zawahiri's security guards were killed on the spot and one was injured but died later'.
He said al-Zawahiri had 'left the targeted room to sleep just 10 minutes ahead of the missile that hit that room'.
The magazine said al-Zawahiri, now 66, has survived several drone strikes.
One of the Taliban's former ministers adds that al-Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda are 'no longer welcome' in areas controlled by his group because it's engaged in peace negotiations with the Afghan government and doesn't want to be seen as 'a threat to world peace', it said.
"Closed out of the tribal areas, al-Zawahiri was 'moved to Karachi under direction of the black leg'," the Afghan Taliban's code name for the ISI, according to the group leader who spoke with the magazine.
'He may well have taken (another al-Qaeda leader) Saif al-Adel, indicted in the US in connection with the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, with him,' the report said.
The ISI was hiding bin Laden so they could be hiding Zawahiri. They started the Taliban.
Pakistan is not our friend.
The enemy axis runs from Riyadh to Islamabad.
The last 16 years have been a colossal waste. The day after Bin Laden was discovered we should have declared war on Pakistan.
As a great American said, “too bad, too bad. Oh, too bad!”
and one eyed Omar where the folk is he
Dr, Zawahiri, please pick up the red courtesy phone...Kaboom
one guy with the right weapon
One good informant as to his location and we can pop him.
Didn’t bin Ladens Dr. give him up in Abbotabad ?
Sleeping with the sand rats ...
I'm sure it runs further than that.
I'm pretty sure it runs right down Washington Avenue.
Karachi, the teeming port city of 26 million people on the Arabian Sea,
Yes there is hell on earth!
yep, but we did not take good care of the doctor afterwards we may need to renew trust with informants...amnesty and that reward would be a great start ,eh?
I think he’s with his 72 virgins...
Omar is dead, hepatitis. We tried for years to dig him out of Karachi, couldn’t do it.
Karachi continues to be, as ever, to be a hotbed of Pahtun and Taliban jihadism. Many areas are no-go areas to the Pakistani police and military.
Karachi was heavily settled by Urdu speaking Muslim refugees from the Pakistan partition with India. They are known as the Mohajir and many are violent and aggressive.
The Mohajir have a strong working relationship with the ISI, former strongman General Musharraf is a Mohajir.
Karachi is the most difficult place to operate in Pakistan as strangers are easily spotted in the crowded neighborhoods.
Zawahiri could be in Karachi among his in-laws the Pahtun. However, Karachi is a gossip festival, particularly the Pahtun. Word would get out. Even so, we knew where Omar was but couldn’t do anything about it.
I think he is still in the tribal areas around Damadola with his favorite wife’s family.
BTW, the FBI and reporters that still refer to Saif al-Adel (which translates to “Sword of Justice”), need to stop using his nickname and call him by his real name, Mohammed Salah al-Din Zaidan. He is Zawahiri’s operations chief and more dangerous.
Thank you, I have been waiting to hear Omar One Eye was room temperature since Bush II said he had to be killed or captured. When did you find out? Why wasn’t it publicized?
Omar had been declared dead at least three times. So, when the news broke, the MSM and many others were skeptical.
Even when the Taliban confirmed it and named another leader, there was little reporting.
The Taliban had been operating without him for a couple of years while he was sick, so he wasn’t missed.
BTW, he died in Karachi, we knew he was there the whole time.
bump
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