Zawahiri dead?

Maybe. But he’s been dead before.

This may be true, but people such as al-Zawahiri tend to die more than once. Take, for example, the Islamic State’s caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He was reported seriously injured or dead several times before he was actually killed in 2019:

Islamic State’s caliph al-Baghdadi said to be severely injured, flees to Syria on July 5, 2014

Several months later, after widespread reports that he had been killed in an airstrike: the Islamic State caliph undead, calls for “volcanoes of jihad” on November 13, 2014

Islamic State’s caliph Ibrahim, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was again reported seriously wounded on April 21, 2015

Bin Laden protege reportedly leading Islamic State after injury to caliph al-Baghdadi that Pentagon denies happened April 23, 2015

UK’s Guardian: Islamic State’s caliph still alive, but paralyzed from a spinal injury in airstrike Pentagon denies hit him April 27, 2015

Radio Iran: Islamic State’s caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead of injuries from the airstrike Pentagon denies hitting him on April 27, 2015

Is the Islamic State’s caliph al-Baghdadi dead (again)? June 17, 2016

Also, Osama bin Laden was widely thought to be dead when he made no public statements for a couple of years; then he resurfaced.

From a practical standpoint, it hardly matters whether or not al-Zawahiri is dead. Al-Qaeda is not based around the charismatic leadership of a single figure, but around an ideology that no one wants to admit exists, and will continue.

“Al-Qaeda chief Zawahiri has died in Afghanistan — sources,” by Baker Atyani and Sayed Salahuddin, Arab News Pakistan, November 20, 2020:

ISLAMABAD/KABUL: Egyptian national Ayman Al-Zawahiri, 69, has died in Afghanistan likely of natural causes, several sources in Pakistan and Afghanistan told Arab News this week, just days after reports of the Al-Qaeda leader’s passing made the rounds on social media.

Zawahiri’s last appearance was in a video message on this year’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
His death, if confirmed, opens up a deep leadership vacuum within Al-Qaeda as at least two senior commanders who would have been in line to replace him have been killed recently: Hamza bin Laden, a son of slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US counter-terrorism operation, the White House announced last year; and Abu Muhamamd Al-Masri, believed to be Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, who was killed in Iran this year, according to media reports.
Arab News spoke to at least four security sources in Pakistan and Afghanistan to confirm Zawahiri’s death. Two said he had died. All spoke off the record as they were not authorized to speak to the media on the issue.

“He [Zawahiri] died last week in Ghazni,” an Al-Qaeda translator who still enjoys close ties with the group, told Arab News on Tuesday. “He died of asthma because he had no formal treatment.”

A Pakistani security official based in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan also said Zawahiri had died.

“We believe he is no longer alive,” he said, declining to be named. “We are firm that he has died of natural causes.”

A source close to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan told Arab News on Monday that the militant leader had passed away this month, November, and a limited number of followers had attended his funeral prayers….

References:

jihadwatch.org