Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan. Taking to Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed the strike and said, “An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31.”
“The nature of the incident was not apparent at first” but the security and intelligence services of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and “initial findings determined that the strike was carried out by an American drone,” he sai
Mujahid said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan “strongly condemns this attack on any pretext and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.”
President Joe Biden also made an announcement on Monday saying that the United States had killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri who was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists and suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In a televised address, Biden said the strike in Kabul, Afghanistan had been carried out on Saturday. “I gave the final approval to go get him,” he said, adding that there had been no civilian casualties.
“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said.
He further added that killing will help bring “closure” to families of those killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks.
“It is my hope that this decisive action will bring one more measure of closure,” he said in his national address.
Saudi Arabia has welcomed US President Joe Biden’s announcement of the killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the State news agency reported late on Monday quoting a foreign ministry statement.
“Zawahiri is considered one of the leaders of terrorism that led the planning and execution of heinous terrorist operations in the United States and Saudi Arabia,” it said.
Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri?
Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden’s personal physician, CNN reported.
He succeeded Laden as the chief of the group after Laden was hunted down by US SEAL forces in Jalalabad in Pakistan.
In 1998, he was indicted for his alleged role on August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.
On August 7, 1998, nearly simultaneous bombs blew up in front of the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in Africa – 224 people died in the blasts, including 12 Americans, and more than 4,500 people were wounded.
The culmination of Zawahiri’s terror plotting came on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A fourth hijacked airliner, headed for Washington, crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.
Both he and bin Laden escaped US forces in Afghanistan in late 2001.
In May 2003, for instance, almost simultaneous suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 23 people, including nine Americans, days after a tape thought to contain Zawahiri’s voice was released, CNN reported.
The whereabouts of Zawahiri had long been a mystery. Rumours have spread since late 2020 that al-Zawahiri had died from an illness. A recent report from UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team confirmed that Zawahiri was living in Afghanistan and communicating freely.
It said that the proof that Al-Zawahiri was alive comes from the video messages issued by the group. The report also warned against the growing strength of terrorist groups including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State pose a great threat to the world.
The US State Department had offered a reward of up to USD 25 million for information leading directly to Zawahiri’s capture.
( Courtesy MINT With inputs from agencies)
