Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri killed in US drone strike in Kabul
Asia-Pacific, News, US August 2, 2022 1 Comment on Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri killed in US drone strike in KabulThe United States killed one of the world’s most wanted men and Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul, President Joe Biden announced on August 1.
“I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all,” Biden said in a speech from the White House. He said the mission was carefully planned and rigorously minimized the risk of harm to other civilians. The strike was ultimately carried out at 9:48 p.m. ET on July 30 by a drone firing so-called “hellfire” missiles.
Intelligence had located Zawahiri’s family in Kabul earlier this year and he moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with immediate family members. However, none of his family members was killed in the attack and there were no civilian casualties, Biden said.
“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a televised address from outside the White House.
“Now we have eliminated the emir of Al Qaeda. He will never again allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone, and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens,” Biden after a successful counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan.
Biden described Zawahiri as number-two man of Osama bin Laden and his deputy at the time of the terrorist attack of 9/11. “He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil. For decades, he was a mastermind behind attacks against Americans, including the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors and wounded dozens more” he said.
Zawahiri also played a key role in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and wounding over 4,500 others, the U.S. President recalled.
The drone strike was carried out on a residential house in the Sherpur area of Kabul. Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack in a statement. “Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the U.S., Afghanistan and the region,” Mujahid said.
From Cairo physician to Al Qaeda leader – Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri?
- Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, has been a leader of Al Qaeda since 2011 after the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden.
- He was an Egyptian surgeon who also acted as bin Laden’s personal physician at one point.
- He had a $25m reward on his head for helping coordinate the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people.
- Zawahiri was one of five signatories to bin Laden’s 1998 ‘fatwa’ calling for attacks against Americans and began frequently appearing at the Al Qaeda leader’s side.
- He became involved with Egypt’s radical Islamist community at a young age and was reportedly jailed for three years in Egypt. He was among the hundreds of suspects arrested for the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat. He was not charged but sentenced to three years in prison for weapons possession.
- He joined the Mujahedeen who were fighting Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s.
- Zawahiri was indicted for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
- His wife and three children were killed in December 2001 in a U.S. attack on the family’s residence in Afghanistan.
- He was killed in a U.S. drone strike authorized by U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
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[…] The TTP leader’s death in Afghanistan comes a week after a U.S. drone raid in Kabul killed al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. […]