US Kills Al-Qaeda Leader, Ayman al-Zawahairi In Drone Strike
Thompson Nsisongabasi
Aug 02, 2022
Leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahairi has been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan as confirmed by President Joe Biden.
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According to reports, he was killed in a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday.
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Ayman al-Zawahairi and Osama bin Laden were America's Most wanted Terrorist. Together they had planted the 9/11 attcaks.
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Mr Biden said "al-Zawahiri "carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens".
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"From hiding, he co-ordinated al-Qaeda's branches and all around the world, including setting priorities for providing operational guidance and calling for and inspired attacks against US targets," the president said in a live television address from the White House.
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"Now justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more," he added.
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The FBI updated its Most Wanted Terrorist poster on Monday with Zawahiri's status: "Deceased."
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The 71-year-old Egyptian doctor turned terrorist took over al-Qaeda after the death of his partener Bin Laden in 2011.
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According to President Biden, Several months of planning ended succesfully as he gave the final approval for the "precision strike"
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Officials said Zawahiri was on the balcony of a safe house - where he reportedly often sat for hours - when the drone fired two missiles at him.
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Other family members were present, but they were unharmed and only Zawahiri was killed in the attack, they added.
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However, the Taliban and al-Qaeda are long-time allies and US officials said the Taliban were aware of Zawahiri's presence in Kabul, and he lived freely and in the open in the Afghan capital.
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Zawahiri's killing comes nearly a year after Mr Biden withdrew US troops from Afghanistan, bringing an end to a 20-year military presence there, and allowing the Taliban to retake control of the country by force.
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In background briefings, US intelligence officers accused Taliban affiliates of going to the safe house after the strike to try to cover up evidence of Zawahiri's presence there.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that by hosting and sheltering Zawahiri in Kabul, the Taliban had "grossly violated" the peace agreement.
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The drone strike is the first known US intervention inside Afghanistan since the military pullout last August and, despite the withdrawal, the decades-old "war on terror" grinds on, the BBC's North America Correspondent John Sudworth observes.
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Days before the withdrawal, a miscalculated US drone strike killed 10 innocent people in Kabul, including an aid worker and seven children. The US said it had been a "tragic mistake" and had been aiming to target a local branch of the so-called Islamic State jihadist group.
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— Thompson Nsisongabasi