Crime & Justice

US drone strike kills al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan: Biden

(Update 1: adds details throughout)

Washington, Aug 1 (EFE).- The United States has killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden announced on Monday.

The counter-terrorism operation was carried out by the CIA in Kabul on Saturday.

“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a televised appearance from the balcony of the White House’s Blue Room.

Zawahiri, 71, was killed Sunday at 6.18 am local time (01:48 GMT) by a drone that fired two Hellfire missiles while he was on the balcony of the safehouse he was staying in with his family.

According to the White House, he was the only death in the operation.

Zawahiri was considered No. 2 to Osama bin Laden and took over the group’s leadership after bin Laden was killed by US special forces under Barack Obama’s administration in 2011.

Biden said Zawahiri was “deeply involved in the planning of 9/11” and that he was a “mastermind” behind attacks against Americans, such as the bombing of the Navy ship USS Cole in 2000, and played a key role in the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

“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,” said Biden.

Biden’s authorization came a week ago ahead of the precision strike after several weeks of meetings with his military and intelligence leadership.

US intelligence had been confirming for months through multiple sources and different methods that it was indeed Zawahiri who lived in that house, from which he never left and was only exposed when he was on the balcony.

Biden said the al-Qaeda leader had been located after he moved to the Afghan capital with his family earlier this year and that he still constituted a threat to the citizens, interests and national security of the US.

The incident was the first known US strike inside Afghanistan since US troops evacuated the country in August last year as the Taliban took over. It is unclear whether the Taliban had provided sanctuary for Zawahiri.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the US strike and strongly condemned it, calling it “a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.”

Born in Egypt in 1951, Zawahiri was a doctor who was described as shy by his fellow students, but who went on to become one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.

One of the last times Zawahiri appeared in a video before his death was in a recording released by the terrorist organization on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

In that video, titled “Jerusalem will never be Judaized,” Zawahiri spoke for more than an hour on a wide variety of topics, especially the Palestinian cause.

After the 9/11 attacks, Interpol ordered his search and capture and the FBI put him on its most wanted list with a $25 million reward.

Since then, he has presumably lived in hiding in one or several places between Afghanistan and Pakistan and has appeared in videos and recordings broadcast by Islamist pages commenting on current events and recalling his permanent commitment to the fight against those considered enemies of Islam. EFE

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