A lethal U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan points to a new approach
The U.S. targeted the top al-Qaida leader, showing it could track down and strike against a hard-to-find extremist figure even in a country where the U.S. has no military or diplomatic presence.
A deadly U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend offered several clues about what U.S. counterterrorism strategy is likely to look like in the future.
First, the target was al-Qaida's top leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a man the U.S. had pursued for more than two decades. The strike showed the U.S. could still track hard-to-find extremist leaders even if it takes a long time to find them.
Second, this was the first high-profile U.S. attack in Afghanistan since U.S. troops withdrew in August of last year. Such strikes are far less frequent than during the height
