Top Al-Qaeda official killed in US airstrike as Afghani forces struggle to remain intact

The Pentagon announced on Friday morning that a top al-Qaeda operative had been killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan on July 11. The operative, Abu Khalil al-Sudani, was the head of al-Qaeda’s suicide and logistic operations, and was also a member of the groups Shura council. Al-Sudani, who had previously fought alongside close-friend Osama Bin Laden in the late 1970’s, had been directly linked to terror plots against the United States and against American troops in Afghanistan. His death is the second amongst high-ranking al-Qaeda officials in the past two weeks. Muhsin Al-Fadhli, an al-Qaeda leader, was killed in a US drone strike in Syria on July 8.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter discussed the success of the airstrike, saying the US will, “continue to take the fight to al-Qaeda.” Carter furthered his statement by explaining that the US will, “continue to counter violent extremism in the region… including efforts to deliver a lasting defeat to ISIL.” Without a doubt, everyone can agree the US must continue to defeat its jihadist enemies, however as President Obama continues to execute his plan of withdrawing all US troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year, fears are looming over the status of Afghanistan’s military.

As previously reported by the Center For Security Policy, the Taliban has increased its violent operations in Afghanistan this year, with the number of Afghan soldiers killed in 2015 increasing over 50 percent in comparison to previous years. The Taliban’s success in killing Afghani soldiers has plagued the military with low morale and high desertion rates, leaving Afghan officials to unsuccessfully ask the President to withdraw US troops at a slower rate.

Once US military support in Afghanistan is completely withdrawn, the Afghan military will likely collapse, which could ultimately lead to the collapse of the Afghan government. As a result, terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda, who the US have worked so hard over the past decade to degrade, will be able to utilize the lack of governance to rebuild itself as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has done in desolate southeastern Yemen.

Although the US has successful degraded al-Qaeda’s core leadership by eliminating top officials who ultimately would have continued to plot against the US, various leaders remain alive and operational in Afghanistan. The leaders include Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s successor; Khalid al-Habib, al-Qaeda’s military commander who oversees the group’s operations in Afghanistan; and various other leaders. These leaders are capable of rebuilding al-Qaeda’s Afghanistan operations and network should the military and government collapse.

Prospects for Afghanistan are bleak which should be raising red flags within the Obama Administration. However, indicated by the continuous withdrawal of US military forces in Afghanistan, no flags have been raised or taken seriously. Overall, the Administration is allowing jihadist terrorists to prepare to revamp their activities in Afghanistan, putting the US homeland directly at risk.

As shown by AQAP, who openly boasted about their ability to leaders killed in US airstrikes, terrorist organizations will always be able to replace higher-level officials faster than the US can find and kill them. That does not mean decapitation of terrorist organizations is not important, rather it highlights the fact that decapitation is a tactic, not a strategy.

In order to successfully degrade the Global Jihad Movement, the US needs a strategy that encompasses a wide variety of our capabilities including covert intelligence operations, economic war-fighting and cyber war-fighting, to name a few. As it stands now, the US has no strategy and remains unprepared to take on the Global Jihad Movement that threatens the US and its citizens.

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