A US drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over as al-Qaeda leader after Osama bin Laden was killed in an airstrike in 2011. President Joe Biden confirmed on Monday, 11 months after US troops left the country after a two-decade war.
“Justice has been served and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden, who is in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 again, said in an evening speech from the balcony of the House Blue Room White.
“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.”
Current and former officials began hearing late Sunday that al-Zawahri, 71, had been killed in a drone strike, but the administration delayed releasing the information until it could be confirmed dead, according to one person.
Appearing somewhat hoarse and congested, Biden described al-Zawahri as bin Laden’s No. 2 man during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The president said al-Zawahri was a “certificate” that he was deeply involved in 9/11, as well as the bombing of the battleship USS Cole and the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Biden spoke from the balcony of the White House Blue Room, where he is in isolation with COVID-19. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)
The house al-Zawahri was in when he was killed in Kabul, where he was hiding with his family, was owned by a senior aide to Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahri’s death.
The US president approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday.
Bin Laden’s deputy shaped Al-Qaeda
The death of al-Zawahri removes the figure who shaped al-Qaeda more than anyone else, first as bin Laden’s deputy from 1998, then as his successor.
Together, the two turned the weapons of the jihadist movement to target the United States and carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the deadliest ever on American soil.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon made bin Laden enemy number 1 in the US, but he probably never would have been able to pull it off without his deputy, who provided the tactics and organizational skills needed to forge militants in a network of cells. in countries around the world.
The bond between the two was forged in the late 1980s, when al-Zawahri treated the Saudi millionaire in the caves of Afghanistan while Soviet bombing shook the mountains around them.
Al-Zawahri, on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list, had a US$25 million reward on his head for any information that could be used to kill or capture him.
Osama bin Laden, left, is seen with al-Zawahri in November 2001. Biden described al-Zawahri as bin Laden’s No. 2 and one of the “rings” in the 9/11 attack on United States. (Hamid Mir/Daily Dawn/Reuters)
Saudi Arabia welcomed Biden’s announcement, the state news agency reported Monday, citing a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
“Zawahri is considered one of the terrorist leaders who led the planning and execution of heinous terrorist operations in the United States and Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Al-Zawahri was a long-time associate of Bin Laden
Photographs from the time of the 9/11 attacks often showed the bespectacled Egyptian doctor sitting next to bin Laden. Al-Zawahri merged his Egyptian militant group with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda in the 1990s.
Al-Zawahri speaks in this image taken from a video released in April 2006. He took over as al-Qaeda leader after bin Laden was killed in a US raid in 2011. (Reuters )
“The strong contingent of Egyptians applied organizational knowledge, financial savvy, and military experience to wage a violent jihad against leaders the fighters saw as un-Islamic and their patrons, especially the United States,” wrote Steven A. Cook for at the Council on Foreign Relations last year.
Speaking on August 31, 2021, after the last US troops left Afghanistan, Biden said the US would not stop fighting terrorism in that country and elsewhere.
“We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries,” he said. “We just don’t need to fight a ground war to do that.”
Previewing the strike that would come 11 months later, Biden said at the time: “We have what’s called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets with no American boots on the ground, or very few, if need.”
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There have been rumors of al-Zawahri’s death for several years. But in April, a video surfaced of the al-Qaeda leader praising an Indian Muslim woman who had defied a ban on wearing the hijab, or headscarf. That image was the first evidence in months that he was still alive.
A statement from Afghanistan’s Taliban government confirmed the airstrike but did not mention al-Zawahri or any other casualties.
He said he “strongly condemns this attack and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” the 2020 US pact with the Taliban that led to the withdrawal of US forces.
“These actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan and the region,” the statement said.
Al-Zawahri, left, and bin Laden, center, are seen in Afghanistan in May 1998. Sources told the AP on Monday that the drone strike in Afghanistan was carried out by ‘Central Intelligence Agency this weekend. (Getty Images)
In his brief speech on Monday, Biden expressed hope that al-Zawahri’s killing would bring “one more measure of closure” to the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
“Never again, never again, will he allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists because he’s gone, and we’re going to make sure nothing else happens,” the president said.