Zawahiri, considered the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead in New York, became head of the terrorist organization after Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011 at the hands of a US commando in Pakistan.
“On Saturday, under my orders, the United States carried out an airstrike over Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri,” President Joe Biden said in a televised address from the White House.
“Justice has been done and this terrorist leader is gone,” he added.
Operation Zawahiri
A US government official said the US carried out a “counter-terrorist operation against a major al-Qaeda target” in Afghanistan over the weekend, without mentioning Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The operation “was successful and there were no civilian casualties,” he said.
The Democratic president said that his death will allow “turning the page” for the families of the victims of those attacks against the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon headquarters near Washington.
The drone attack was carried out without a US military presence on the ground, an official said, demonstrating the US ability “to identify and locate even the world’s most wanted terrorists and take action to eliminate them.”
Ayman al-Zawahiri was located “several times and for long periods on the balcony where he was finally hit” by the attack in the Afghan capital, it added.
The operation caused “no civilian casualties,” Biden said during his speech.
The State Department was offering up to $25 million in rewards for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of the al Qaeda leader.
This announcement comes almost a year after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to regain control of the country twenty years after they were overthrown.
In mid-July, the United States announced that it had killed the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, Maher al-Agalduring a drone strike, an operation that “significantly weakened the organization’s ability” to prepare, finance and carry out operations in the region, a US military spokesman said.
Source: Ambito
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