THE United States (US) says it has killed the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist group Ayman al-Zawahiri, who alongside the group’s founder, Osama bin Laden, plotted the September 11, 2001 bombing that killed 2, 977 people.
In a speech from the White House Monday evening, President Joe Biden confirmed al-Zawahiri was killed in a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, on Sunday.
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“I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all,” Biden said.
Al-Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden’s personal physician.
The al Qaeda leader who was one of the US’ most wanted terrorists, was said to have been on the balcony of a safe house where he had gone to reunite with members of his immediate family when the drone fired two missiles at him.
No American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time of the strike and other members of al-Zawahiri’s family present with him were not targeted and remain unharmed.
President Biden said the precise tailored airstrike conducted at about 9:48 pm ET on Saturday was the result of the “extraordinary persistence and skill” of the nation’s intelligence community.
“Now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more. People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer.
“We make it clear again tonight, that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out,” Biden said.
In a series of tweets, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, “An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31.” According to him, “The nature of the incident was not apparent at first” but the security and intelligence services of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and “initial findings determined that the strike was carried out by an American drone”.
Besides the World Trade Centre bombings, al-Zawahiri also masterminded other acts of violence, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole naval destroyer in Aden in October 2000 which killed 17 US sailors, and the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 223 people died.