Al-Zawahiri has led al-Qaeda since US commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
There were no civilian casualties in the counterterrorism operation this weekend, according to a US official who spoke to the AFP news agency. Al-Zawahiri came from a prominent Egyptian family, his grandfather was an imam at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. His great-uncle was the first president of the Arab League. The United States had put a $25 million bounty on his head.