WASHINGTON: The United States has confirmed the death of Muhsin al-Masri, a high ranking Al-Qaeda official in Afghanistan, stating that U.S. forces provided intelligence and logistical support in the Afghan-led operation in the country’s Eastern province of Ghazni.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian national who is believed to be Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command and was also on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list, was killed in a special operation in Ghazni, as confirmed by both Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) and more recently by the United States’ National Security Council. Al-Masri was previously charged in the United States for providing material support, resources and funding to a foreign terrorist organization, and in a conspiracy to kill American nationals - with a warrant issued for his arrest in December 2018.

In a statement after the operation, President Ashraf Ghani stated that “terrorism still remains a huge threat to Afghanistan, the region and the world and that Taliban has not cut off their ties with other terrorist networks including Al-Qaida yet”. Ghani underscored that the Taliban “should prove it in action to the people and government of Afghanistan and to the world that it will break its symbolic relations with all terrorist networks including Al-Qaeda, and cease acts of violence”.

The death of Al-Masri was announced in the wake of a horrific suicide bombing at an education center in Kabul on Saturday, as a result of which 18 people were killed and at least 50 injured in the process - many of whom belonged to the country’s minority Shia community, indicative of the strong undercurrents of sectarian violence amidst this surge in violence. The Taliban have since denied responsibility for the attack.

The peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, and the negotiations with the Kabul-led government, have been fraught with obstacles - as all stakeholders have been unable to cease violence, or to fully meet the conditional requirements of the peace deal itself. The deal, if successful, would see all foreign forces leave the country by May 2021, in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban and a mutually-acceptable power sharing agreement with the government.