Al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri killed in Kabul strike: Biden

KABUL (Pajhwok): The United States killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, President Joe Biden announced on Monday.

The attack represents the biggest blow to the militant organisation since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011, according to Reuters.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head, helped coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

The news agency quoted unnamed US officials as saying that Zawahiri died after a US drone strike in Kabul at 6:18 am (0148 GMT) on Sunday.

“Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden, who is recovering from COVID-19, said in remarks from the White House.

“No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out,” the president added.

US intelligence determined with “high confidence” through multiple intelligence streams that the man killed was Zawahiri, one senior administration official told reporters.

The Al-Qaeda supremo was killed on the balcony of a “safe house” in Kabul that he shared with other members of his family. There were no other casualties in the strike.

According to foreign media reports, Zawahiri exhibited confidence and would regularly appear on the balcony of the flat he lived in Kabul.

For successive US administrations, he continued to be a prime target because of his role in the devastating 9/11 attacks.

The US military reportedly fired two Hellfire missiles from a drone flying above Kabul, hitting Zawahiri’s safe house and killing him.

One US official told journalists in Washington: “For several years, the US government has been aware of a network that we assessed supported Zawahiri.”

Earlier this year, the official added, US intelligence came to know that Zawahiri’s family — his spouse, his daughter and her children — had to Kabul.

“We identified Zawahiri on multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony,” the official claimed, saying the attack was planned over May and June.

nh/mud