US kills al-Qa’ida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in drone strike

Joe Biden says he gave the order a week ago to target Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden, in ‘downtown Kabul’.

al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri rallies supporters in a 2011 video.

Joe Biden has confirmed the US has killed al-Qa’ida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan, in the first American attack in the country since withdrawing its forces last year.

The US President on Tuesday said he hoped al-Zawahiri’s assassination in Kabul over the weekend would bring “closure” to the families of the September 11 victims. Al-Zawahiri had been identified as the mastermind of the attacks on the that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“It is my hope that this decisive action will bring one more measure of closure,” Mr Biden said in a national address on television.

Mr Biden said US intelligence earlier this year confirmed the al-Qa’ida leader had moved to Kabul to be with his family. He said a week ago he gave the final approval to “go get him.”

None of Zawahiri’s family was hurt and there were no civilian casualties, Mr Biden said.

“He will never again allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven, a launching pad against the United States,” he said. “We made sure of that.”

Earlier today a White House official said: “Over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant al-Qa’ida target in Afghanistan. The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties.”

The New York Times reports the strike was carried out by the CIA, not by US military.

“The strike that killed al-Qa’ida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is a major success of US counterterrorism efforts. A result of countless hours of intelligence collection over many years,” Mick Mulroy, a former CIA. officer and senior Pentagon official told the Times. “He likely believed we would never be able to track him down. But he was wrong.”

al-Qaeda co-founders deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri (L) and leader Osama bin Laden 1998.

Zawahiri, 71, an Egyptian surgeon who became one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, had been on the run ever since, and took over Al-Qa’ida after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011. The United States had placed a $25 million bounty on his head.

It would be the first known over-the-horizon strike by the United States on an Al-Qa’ida target in Afghanistan since American forces withdrew from the country on August 31, 2021.

On Saturday morning the Afghan interior ministry denied reports circulating on social media of a drone strike in Kabul, telling AFP a rocket struck “an empty house” in the capital, causing no casualties.

Early Tuesday in Kabul, however, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that an” aerial attack” was carried out on a residence in the Sherpur area of the city.

“The nature of the incident was not revealed at first. The security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and found in their preliminary investigations that the attack was carried out by American drones,” his tweet said.

The Taliban condemned the strike, saying it violated international principles and the terms of the deal signed with the US in 2020, which set the terms of America’s exit from the country after two decades of war.“Such actions are repetitions of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against US, Afghanistan and the region’s interests,” Mr Mujahid said in a statement.

In recent months the Taliban have largely barred media from covering the aftermath of security incidents and frequently deny or downplay any casualties.

AFP