John Kirby REJECTS claims Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a safe haven for Al Qaeda

White House security spokesman John Kirby defended the nation’s ability to carry out anti-terror strikes in Afghanistan and said lingering Al Qaeda members aren’t ‘feeling too good’ after the U.S. strike on terror leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

He took to Fox News Tuesday morning to respond to questions about the strike, and engaged in back-and-forth with conservative commentator and TV host Brian Kilmeade, who pressed him on how the terror big had been able to move to Kabul.

‘I do think that one would believe if the leader of … al Qaeda is not in a cave or hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan and that he’s on the balcony in the capital, that al Qaeda feels pretty good about their presence in that country. And there’s more than just one guy, but that’s not good news for us. But the good news is he’s dead,’ he said.

Kirby, communications coordinator for the National Security Council, pushed back, days after a CIA drone fired hellfire missiles that took out al-Zawahiri. A senior administration official said al-Zawahiri had stepped out on his balcony, where the strike killed him at a safe house where he had moved with his family.

‘I don’t think they’re feeling too good about being in Afghanistan right now,’ said Kirby.

‘Really?’ countered Kilmeade. ‘If they were worried about it they’d be in the – they’d be hiding in Pakistan where we couldn’t even find them,’ he postulated. 

‘I mean, I don’t think that al Qaeda can look at what happened over the last 48 hours and feel like Afghanistan is going to be much of a safe haven for them,’ Kirby pressed. ‘We have proven that over-the-horizon counterterrorism capability works.’

‘We did it to a fare-thee-well in the last 48 hours and we’re going to stand by and be ready and vigilant if we have to do it again,’ he said. 

The U.S. strike was carried out early Sunday at the Afghanistan safe house where the elderly terrorist was holed up, at 6:18 am local time and 9:48 pm Saturday in the US. 

President Biden, when defending the U.S. troop withdrawal last year after the Taliban swept across the country and the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed, said even without forces on the ground the U.S. would be able to carry out ‘over the horizon’ activities. 

‘We hold this as a violation of the Doha agreement. We’ve made that very clear,’ said Kirby, on a provision that prohibits the Taliban government from harboring the Taliban.

‘I think the fact that we were able to take out Mr. Zawahiri in downtown Kabul without a scratch to anybody else sends a pretty powerful signal to the Taliban and anybody else who might harbor al Qaeda terrorists going forward,’ he said.

‘Over a year ago, we talked about the fact that we knew even before we left Afghanistan that there was going to be a small number of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. They already were there. We still believe the number is very small but that they’re there.

Kirby’s appearance came after Republicans slammed President Biden for applauding the killing of Al Qaeda’s top leader, alleging his ‘disastrous withdrawal’ from Afghanistan paved the way for the group’s resurgence.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over the terrorist group after founder Osama bin Laden’s death, was killed in a CIA drone strike in Kabul on Sunday. 

Biden expressed hope Monday that al-Zawahiri’s death would bring ‘one more measure of closure’ to families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, which he helped coordinate.

The president alleged al-Zawahiri will ‘never again allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone’ and pledged his administration would ‘make sure that nothing else happens.’

However, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed Biden’s botched exit from the Taliban-ruled country on the ‘possible re-emergence of Al Qaeda,’ alleging the US must take action to prevent terrorists from entering the nation.

Meanwhile, 9/11 groups and families of victims are celebrating al-Zawahiri’s slaying, but argue there needs to be more accountability of those who plotted the attacks.

Biden confirmed during a Monday evening address from the White House that al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul on Sunday, an operation he hailed as delivering ‘justice.’

US intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul – owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani – where he was hiding out with his family.

‘He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happen,’ Biden declared. ‘This terrorist leader is no more.’

However, Biden’s critics allege the drone strike demonstrates the president’s failure to combat terrorism and his blatant lies to the American people, citing previous statements he made claiming Al Qaeda was not present in Afghanistan.

‘Today is further proof that our United States Military and Intelligence Community personnel will not stop pursuing those who threaten the United States of America and our interests,’ McCarthy said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

‘This news also sheds light on the possible re-emergence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan following President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal a year ago,’ he continued.

‘The Biden administration must provide Congress with a classified briefing as soon as possible to discuss the resurgence of Al Qaeda in the region over the past year, the current foreign terrorist threat to America, and the steps we must take to keep our country safe and prevent terrorists from entering the United States.’

Rep. Mike Turner, the lead Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, argued the drone strike put an end to al-Zawahiri’s ‘reign of terror’ but also revealed Biden’s failure to address ‘rising threats’ in Afghanistan.

‘When US troops withdrew from Afghanistan last year, President Biden claimed Al Qaeda was gone from Afghanistan,’ Turner penned. ‘This strikes tells us otherwise.’

‘The United States has brought justice to al-Zawahiri and the world is safer for it. The President must now turn his attention to the rising threats in Afghanistan.’ 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who partied with former President Donald Trump at his Bedminister golf course at the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament, mocked the president for his ‘ridiculous victory lap,’ his ’embarrassing’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and overall poor performance as commander-in-chief.

‘After embarrassing America with the failed military pull out of Afghanistan, spending nearly $60 billion in a proxy war with Russia that’s just killing more people, and Pelosi on the verge of causing China to invade Taiwan, it’s absurd Joe is going to try to act tough on TV,’ Greene tweeted Monday night.

‘Of course we want all terrorists that attack America dead, but no one in America has been sweating an attack from Al Qaeda lately or even heard a thing about them, but Americans are extremely stressed about affording groceries, gas, & the Democrats big tax hike coming soon.’

Greene then slammed ‘pathetic Democrat policies’ that she claims have led to ‘out of control inflation, an out of control border invasion and out of control crime sprees across America.’

‘But they have to roll Joe out on TV tonight while he’s Covid positive again so he can talk big without blinking,’ she added. ‘Joe’s victory lap is ridiculous.’

Some Republicans, including Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, applauded Biden’s win, but also used al-Zawahiri’s death as an opportunity to criticize the president’s leadership.

‘To the Biden Administration: congratulations on this operation, but your overall strategy of abandoning Afghanistan is going to come back to haunt America because Afghanistan is again going to be a safe haven for radical Islam,’ Graham wrote. 

‘If you think this drone strike has stopped the threat to our homeland coming from Afghanistan, you have missed a lot of history.’

Graham, citing his own prior statements, argued that when Biden withdrew US troops from Afghanistan it was ‘only a matter of time before the country became a safe haven for terrorism once again.’

‘I did not believe in my wildest dreams that Al-Zawahiri would go to Kabul to live with family members as President Biden suggested. What a brazen show of an alliance between al-Qaeda and the Taliban,’ he stated. ‘Al-Zawahiri may be dead in Afghanistan, but al-Qaeda is not gone.’

Graham warned that contrary to Biden’s remarks, the US military’s ability to combat growing terrorist threats in Afghanistan are ‘on the margins.’

‘There are al-Qaeda training camps emerging in Afghanistan like before 9/11.’ 

Sen. Cruz said Americans should ‘breathe easier today knowing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, has been eliminated.’

He said hailed al-Zawahiri’s death as an ‘important accomplishment’ that should serve as a warning to all terrorist groups.

‘This strike should be a message to terrorists near and far: if you conspire to kill Americans, we will find and kill you,’ Cruz said. 

Meanwhile, those who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks say that while al-Zawahiri’s death is a ‘significant step forward,’ officials need to take further action against Al Qaeda members. 

‘We urge President Biden to continue to stand with the 9/11 community and all those who seek justice by holding Saudi Arabia accountable for the 9/11 attacks,’ the group 9/11 Justice said in a statement to Fox News.

‘This is a significant step forward and is particularly meaningful to the 9/11 community as we continue our years-long battle for justice and accountability.’

The group praised Biden for declassifying documents about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attacks, but claim he must further hold the nation responsible for the ‘murder of thousands.’

‘The financiers are not being targeted by drones, they are being met with fist pumps and hosted at golf clubs,’ Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United, said of the Saudi investors who funded the attacks.

‘If we’re going to be serious about accountability, we must hold everyone accountable.’

President and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Alice Greenwald argued al-Zawahiri’s death ‘demonstrates how the 9/11 story continues to evolve, even 21 years later, and reinforces the need for us to keep educating younger generations about the continued impact of 9/11 on the world we live in today.’

Planning for the operation to kill al-Zawahiri began six months ago, but intensified in the last two months, US officials revealed.

Intelligence officials had tracked Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was allegedly hiding out with his family. 

Biden approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday. A CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed the terrorist’s death.

Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head, helped coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

His whereabouts – variously rumored to be in Pakistan’s tribal area or inside Afghanistan – had been unknown until the air strike. 

The leader’s death marks the biggest blow to the militant group since bin Laden was killed by US special forces in 2011. 

His killing comes after the United Nations reported in June that Afghanistan has been serving as a safe haven for Al Qaeda under the Taliban and that an undisclosed number of the group’s members were living in Kabul’s former diplomatic quarter.

Communications from al-Zawahiri also showed he believed ‘he may be able to lead more effectively than was possible before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.’

Experts earned in the intelligence report to the UN Security Council that the country could become a base for terrorist attacks, The Guardian reported. 

However, they added neither IS nor Al Qaeda ‘is believed to be capable of mounting international attacks before 2023 at the earliest, regardless of their intent or of whether the Taliban acts to restrain them.’

Nonetheless, it said the presence of IS, Al Qaeda, and ‘many other terrorist groups and fighters on Afghan soil’ is raising concerns in neighboring countries and the wider international community.

There are also concerns about the Taliban’s inability to keep its promise not to allow terrorist groups to operate in Afghanistan.

The panel said the Haqqani Network, a militant Islamist group with close ties to the Taliban, moved quickly after their takeover to gain control of key portfolios and ministries including interior, intelligence, passports and migration. 

It now ‘largely controls security in Afghanistan, including the security of the capital, Kabul,’ the report stated.

‘The Haqqani Network is still regarded as having the closest links to al-Qaeda,’ and the relationship between the Taliban and Al Qaeda also remains close.

The experts pointed to the reported presence of Al Qaeda’s ‘core leadership’ in eastern Afghanistan, including al-Zawahiri.

With other senior Al Qaeda members, al-Zawahiri is believed to have plotted the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole naval vessel in Yemen which killed 17 US sailors and injured more than 30 others, the Rewards for Justice website said.

He was indicted in the US for his role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded more than 5,000 others.

Both bin laden and al-Zawahiri eluded capture when US-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban government in late 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Biden’s decision to kill al-Zawahiri is sure to be compared to the cautious stance he initially took in meetings that led to then-President Barack Obama’s order for the Pakistan raid that killed bin Laden in 2011.

Biden, who was then vice president, has acknowledged that he advised Obama to take more time. But he also told him to ‘follow your instincts’ and ultimately supported his decision to go ahead.

Obama, in his memoirs, wrote that Biden was concerned about ‘the enormous consequences of failure’ and counseled the president to ‘defer any decision until the intelligence community was more certain that bin Laden was in the compound.’