Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday. That happened during a drone attack carried out by the CIA, President Joe Biden confirmed during a press conference.
The death of Zawahiri is the biggest blow to Al Qaeda since the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. You can read in this article who this 71-year-old Egyptian ophthalmologist is and what the consequences of his death are .
No civilian casualties
US intelligence agencies discovered the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s leader earlier this year, Biden said. No civilians or relatives of Zawahiri were killed in the drone strike this weekend, Biden said. The attack was carried out without US troops on the ground in Afghanistan.
President Biden has been considering various scenarios for several weeks to eliminate the leader of the terrorist organization, the White House reports. “A model has even been built of the house in Kabul where Zawahiri lived,” says correspondent Erik Mouthaan.
The drone strike is said to have been carried out when Zawahiri was outside on a balcony. “The idea behind this is that the chance of other victims is smaller,” explains Mouthaan.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed and “condemned” the attack, but said nothing about any casualties. Biden says the Taliban violated the agreement by allowing Zawahiri to stay in Afghanistan. The US president says he will not allow ‘Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists’.
Mastermind 9/11
Zawahiri is the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 civilians in 2001, according to US intelligence. President Biden says his death is good news for families of victims who died on 9/11. “They can turn the page now,” Biden said.
The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, President Joe Biden said, the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 https://t.co/YLucAgV33H pic.twitter.com/pHYbGIYzG1
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 2, 2022
