Mumbai: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a drone strike by the US’ CIA in Afghanistan on Sunday, President Joe Biden said.
Zawahiri was a key plotter of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and took over as leader of the group after Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011.
“After carefully considering the clear and solid evidence of [Zawahiri’s] location, I authorized a precise attack that would remove him from the battlefield forever,” President Joe Biden said at the White House on Monday.
“My administration will continue to monitor and address threats from al-Qaeda, regardless of where they originate,” he said.
Zawahiri was Osama bin Laden’s second-in-command and took control of al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed by US Navy troops in a raid in 2011.
The US learned that Zawahiri’s family had moved to a safe house in Kabul and later traced the al-Qaeda leader there. Senior administrative officials were briefed on intelligence in April, and later informed the president of Zawahiri’s whereabouts.
On several occasions, Zawahiri was seen on the balcony of the safe house and was eventually killed there over the weekend.
A senior US administration official said his familyly was elsewhere in the house when the operation took place and they had not been targeted or targeted.
A US administration official said senior officials of the Haqqani network linked to the Taliban were aware of Zawahiri’s whereabouts in Kabul.
The official said Biden authorized the operation on July 25. Zawahiri is believed to be the only person to die in the operation.
The US official said the drone strike that killed Zawahiri happened on Sunday and fired two Hellfire missiles.
“I made a promise to the American people that we would continue to conduct effective counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We’ve done just that,” Biden said, speaking about one year after the US withdrawal from
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