WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – With a targeted drone attack in Afghanistan, the United States killed the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, Aiman al-Zawahiri. US President Joe Biden announced on Monday evening (local time) in Washington that Al-Sawahiri had died in a “precision strike” in the Afghan capital Kabul over the weekend. There were no civilian casualties. For decades, Al-Sawahiri was behind the attacks on Americans and played a key role in various terrorist attacks, Biden said. “Now justice has been done. And that terrorist leader is no more.”
In a short-term appearance on a balcony of the White House, Biden personally commented on the strike against the terrorist group – despite Corona. The President is currently in isolation from being infected with the virus. Biden said the strike against al-Zawahiri was a sign of American determination and ability in the fight against terrorism.
Al-Zawahiri succeeded Osama bin Laden, who was thought to be the mastermind behind the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011 in a sensational operation by a US special forces unit. Now the Americans also switched off its successor – but more silently, by remote control, so to speak. According to the government in Washington, no American forces were in Kabul to strike him.
A senior US official said the attack on al-Zawahiri had been in preparation for months. He was found in a shelter in Kabul. There he was finally killed on Saturday evening local time when he stepped onto the balcony of the house. None of al-Zawahiri’s family members who were with him in the house were injured.
As al-Qaeda’s number two for many years, the Egyptian rose to the top of the terror network in 2011 after the death of bin Laden. The trained doctor from Cairo had already earned the nickname “terror doctor” before that. However, he never managed to achieve the iconic status of his predecessor among jihadists.
Al-Sawahiri made his last public appearance last September – exactly 20 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In a video message he called on his supporters to fight the states in the West and their allies in the Middle East. In previous years, there had been unconfirmed rumors of his death. His exact whereabouts were unknown. Experts recently suspected that Al-Sawahiri was hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States had put a $25 million bounty on his head. His death came as a surprise
– just before the first anniversary of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Almost a year ago, at the end of August 2021, the USA withdrew all soldiers from Afghanistan, ending international military operations in the country after almost 20 years. The Taliban had recently taken power in Kabul. The international withdrawal was made more difficult by their rapid campaign of conquest and turned out to be chaotic. All in all, the American withdrawal from Afghanistan met with a great deal of criticism and incomprehension internationally. Biden, who was under pressure because of the debacle, had pledged at the time not to give up the fight against terrorism in the region.
The US President now sees Zawahiri’s death as proof that it is possible to protect America from terrorists even without thousands of soldiers on Afghan soil. The strike against al-Zawahiri is also a message to others: “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you are hiding, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and eliminate you.”
The fact that al-Zawahiri was hiding in Afghanistan also raises uncomfortable questions about what the war on terror there has entailed: a 20-year military operation that cost huge sums of money and claimed the lives of tens of thousands – and which began because the country had harbored al Qaeda terrorists.
The US government official said that according to American intelligence, members of the current Taliban leadership knew that the al-Qaeda chief was in the Afghan capital. You would have clearly violated agreements with the United States. In an agreement with the United States, in return for the withdrawal of international troops, the Taliban had pledged, among other things, that Afghanistan would no longer pose a terrorist threat from other groups such as al-Qaeda. For their part, the Taliban now viewed the American drone attack as a breach of the agreement – even if there were no soldiers on Afghan soil for the action.
Of the UN Security Council has repeatedly reported on close ties between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Al Qaeda has suffered setbacks in recent years. Experts argued, however, that their focus on global terror continued to pose a threat. And observers viewed the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan with great concern, warning that the group could regain strength with the Taliban’s toleration. It was initially unclear who could now take over the leadership of al-Qaeda./jac/DP/zb