U.S. drone strike kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, Biden confirms
A U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over as al-Qaeda chief after Osama bin Laden’s demise in an airstrike in 2011, President Joe Biden confirmed Monday, 11 months after American troops left the nation following a two-decade conflict.
“Justice has been delivered, and this terrorist chief isn’t any extra,” Biden, who’s in isolation after testing constructive once more for COVID-19, stated in an night deal with from the balcony off the White Home Blue Room.
“Regardless of how lengthy it takes, regardless of the place you conceal, if you’re a risk to our folks, america will discover you and take you out.”
Present and former officers started listening to Sunday afternoon that al-Zawahri had been killed in a drone strike, however the administration delayed releasing the data till his demise may very well be confirmed, in keeping with one individual.
Sounding considerably hoarse and congested, Biden described al-Zawahri as bin Laden’s No. 2 man throughout the Sept. 11 assaults in 2001. The president stated al-Zawahri was a “mastermind” who was deeply concerned in 9/11, in addition to the bombing of the battleship USS Cole and bombings on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The home al-Zawahri was in when he was killed in Kabul, the place he was hiding along with his household, was owned by a high aide to senior Taliban chief Sirajuddin Haqqani, in keeping with a senior intelligence official. The official additionally added {that a} CIA floor crew and aerial reconnaissance performed after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahri’s demise.
The U.S. president authorized the operation final week and it was carried out on Sunday.
Bin Laden deputy formed al-Qaeda
The demise of al-Zawahri eliminates the determine that formed al-Qaeda greater than anybody, first as bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor.
Collectively, the 2 turned the jihadi motion’s weapons to focus on america, finishing up the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults — the deadliest ever on American soil.
The assaults on the World Commerce Middle and the Pentagon made bin Laden Enemy No. 1 within the U.S., however he possible may by no means have carried it out with out his deputy, who introduced the techniques and organizational expertise wanted to forge militants right into a community of cells in nations around the globe.
The bond between the 2 was solid within the late Eighties, when al-Zawahri reportedly handled the Saudi millionaire within the caves of Afghanistan as Soviet bombardment shook the mountains round them.
Al-Zawahri, on the FBI’s most wished terrorist record, had a $25-million US bounty on his head for any data that may very well be used to kill or seize him.
Saudi Arabia welcomed Biden’s announcement, the state information company reported late on Monday quoting a Overseas Ministry assertion.
“Zawahri is taken into account one of many leaders of terrorism that led the planning and execution of heinous terrorist operations in america and Saudi Arabia,” it stated.
Al-Zawahri was longtime bin Laden affiliate
Pictures from the time of the 9/11 assaults typically confirmed the glasses-wearing Egyptian physician sitting by bin Laden’s aspect. Al-Zawahri merged his group of Egyptian militants with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda within the Nineteen Nineties.
“The sturdy contingent of Egyptians utilized organizational know-how, monetary experience, and army expertise to wage a violent jihad towards leaders whom the fighters thought-about to be un-Islamic and their patrons, particularly america,” Steven A. Prepare dinner wrote for the Council on Overseas Relations final 12 months.
Talking on Aug. 31, 2021, after the final U.S. troops left Afghanistan, Biden stated the U.S. wouldn’t let up on its battle towards terrorism in that nation or elsewhere.
“We’ll preserve the battle towards terrorism in Afghanistan and different nations,” he stated. “We simply need not battle a floor conflict to do it.”
Previewing the strike that will happen 11 months later, Biden stated on the time, “We’ve what’s referred to as over-the-horizon capabilities, which implies we will strike terrorists and targets with out American boots on the bottom — or only a few, if wanted.”
U.S. President Joe Biden marked the tip of the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan by defending the choice to exit as critics categorical concern a few energy vacuum that would enable different terror organizations to take maintain.
There have been rumours of al-Zawahri’s demise on and off for a number of years. However a video surfaced in April of the al-Qaeda chief praising an Indian Muslim girl who had defied a ban on sporting a hijab, or headband. That footage was the primary proof in months that he was nonetheless alive.
A press release from Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities confirmed the airstrike, however didn’t point out al-Zawahri or every other casualties.
It stated it “strongly condemns this assault and calls it a transparent violation of worldwide ideas and the Doha Settlement,” the 2020 U.S. pact with the Taliban that led to the withdrawal of American forces.
“Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the previous 20 years and are towards the pursuits of america of America, Afghanistan, and the area,” the assertion stated.
In his temporary deal with on Monday, Biden expressed hope that al-Zawahri’s killing brings “yet one more measure of closure” to households of the victims of the Sept. 11 assaults.
“He won’t ever once more, by no means once more, enable Afghanistan to turn out to be a terrorist secure haven as a result of he’s gone and we will make it possible for nothing else occurs,” the president stated.
