US President Joe Biden has confirmed that Ayman al-Zawahiri, 70, who succeeded bin Laden as al-Qaida leader after his death, was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan last weekend. It is the heaviest blow to al-Qaeda since bin Laden was killed in 2011. “There is justice, this terrorist leader is gone,” Biden said at a White House press conference.
Egyptian doctor Al-Zawahiri has led al-Qaeda since US commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. He was credited with being the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. There was a price of 24 million euros on his head.
Drone attack
The drone attack was carried out by the US intelligence agency CIA in the Afghan capital, Kabul, at 6:18 a.m. local time on Sunday morning. The US intelligence agency says it has determined with “great certainty” that the man killed was indeed al-Zawahiri. He said there were no other casualties in the operation.
In recent years there have been more rumors that al-Zawahiri would be dead, but that turned out to be incorrect. He founded Egypt’s Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which merged with al-Qaeda in 1998. He met Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda.
US prosecutors accused al-Zawahiri not only of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks, but also of involvement in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Al-Zawahiri also claimed responsibility for the subway bombing. of London in 2005, which killed 52 people.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan confirmed that an attack had taken place in Kabul. He did not say whether people were killed.