Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan, on Friday said that no enemy of Washington in Afghanistan is safe from US strikes. He stressed that the US drone strike in the Shirpur area of Kabul is proof enough for them.
Referring to the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Shirpur area of Kabul, Hekmatyar said, "If America wants to, it can target its enemies anywhere in Afghanistan, even near the presidential palace."
According to Hekmatyar, the Shirpur strike shows that the Afghan nation must reach a consensus and take a firm stand against these attacks.
He said with a firm reaction that the US will target not only the foreigners, but Afghans too, including leaders of the Taliban in the future.
According to Hekmatyar, there is no definitive proof that Zawahiri was killed on Sunday. However, he said that the strike targeted a location in the proximity of the Afghan presidential palace and it shows that the US is actively present in Afghanistan and the war has not ended yet.
He called the Doha agreement “a deception, not a real agreement”.
According to Hekmatyar, the US drone strike proved that Afghanistan's airspace is not safe and that Afghans are not in control of Afghanistan’s soil.
According to Hekmtyar, al-Zawahiri was present in Afghanistan for the past 20 years. He said that the al-Qaeda leader was living in Paktia, Khost, Waziristan, Nuristan, and sometimes, he was in Musa Qala of Helmand province.
During his Friday prayer speech, Hekmatyar added, "The question is how al-Zawahiri came to Kabul and with what confidence? Who informed the Americans about his whereabouts?" He urged the Taliban to give a clear and acceptable answer to his questions and stressed that the group should answer Afghans on how the drone strike took place. He also emphasized that the Taliban should break their silence around al-Zawahiri’s killing.
