Reports claimed the attack was launched from Ganci Air Base, a US transit facility in Manas in northern Kyrgyzstan.
According to the US Department of Defense, Ganci is a former US military base in Kyrgyzstan near Bishkek International Airport. It was operated by the US Air Force, which handed it over to the Kyrgyz Army in June 2014.
The United States killed leader Zawahiri in a weekend attack in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said Monday, the biggest blow to the militant group since the 2011 killing of its founder Osama bin Laden.
"Given the Taliban's unwillingness or inability to live up to its commitments, we will continue to support the Afghan people with strong humanitarian aid and advocate for the protection of their human rights, especially women and girls," Blinken said in a statement. Claim.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Taliban acknowledged that the US had carried out the drone strike, but gave no details of casualties - and did not name Zawahiri, who was believed to be a key plotter in the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
However, the US administration still refuses to reveal where the drone took off from and what route it took. The Ministry of Defense issued only a brief statement: “Zawahiri was killed in an operation over the skyline in central Kabul, where he was staying as a guest of the Taliban. Two Hellfires hit the house at 6:18 a.m. Kabul time on Sunday in a precision counter-terrorist operation.
National Public Radio (NPR), the largest U.S. radio news network, noted that U.S. officials did not say where the drone was launched from, "but the U.S. no longer has any military bases in the immediate vicinity, suggesting the aircraft may have flown a long distance before reaching its targets ".
Michael Kugelman, an expert on South Asian affairs at the Wilson Center in Washington, noted that the drone strike had sparked "a lot of discussion" in the US about Pakistan's "possible role" in the attack.
“I wouldn't overestimate his role, but I would also take with a grain of salt the statement that there was no role.
Mr. Kugelman focused his attention on two possible forms of support: airspace and intelligence. "Geography doesn't lie. If this drone was launched from a US base in the Persian Gulf, it wouldn't be able to fly over Iran. Flying over Central Asia is lengthy and difficult to manage if you're doing a quick operation." he wrote
"This leaves Pakistani airspace as the most desirable option for intelligence support, and US officials have indicated that the operation took months to plan and monitor."
"Could he do it alone, without a presence on earth?" he asked, adding that if it weren't for Pakistan, "some renegade Taliban may have given this information to the US."
But Mr. Kugelman does not rule out the possibility that Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbors would provide this support to the US.
A BBC report explored the possibility of the CIA carrying out a drone strike without any support from Afghanistan's neighbors.
“When a missile is launched from a drone, the weapons operator — sometimes sitting in an air-conditioned control room as far away as the continental US — sees a live video stream of the target, captured by the drone's camera sensors via satellite. " the report warned.
“Using a set of aiming mounts on the screen, the camera operator is then able to focus on a target and point the laser at it. Once the missile is fired, it follows the laser path until it hits the target."
The report also said the U.S. used the Hellfire unmanned air-to-surface missile, which has become part of U.S. counterterrorism operations overseas in the decade since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"The missile can be launched from a variety of platforms, including helicopters, ground vehicles, ships and fixed-wing aircraft - or in Zawahiri's case, an unmanned drone."
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