The US has reported that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, has been killed.
A perpetrator of the September 11 attacks and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world has been assassinated. According to Biden, the attack on Kabul, Afghanistan, was carried out.
President Biden announces the death of the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.
(AFP) - Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world who was thought to be the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks, was slain, according to President Joe Biden.
Biden said in a televised speech that the attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, had taken place on Saturday. He stated, "I gave the final authority to go grab him," and added that there had been no harm done to any civilians.
Biden declared, "Justice has been served, and this terrorist commander is no more."
There were no US troops in Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official, and Zawahiri was killed by a drone hit while standing on the balcony of a home in Kabul.
Zawahiri's presence in the Afghan capital Kabul, according to the official, was an "obvious breach" of a pact the Taliban and the US made in Doha in 2020 that allowed for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Since American forces left Afghanistan on August 31, 2021, it is known that this was the first over-the-horizon attack by the US on an Al-Qaeda target there.
After the 9/11 attacks that left over 3,000 people dead in the US, Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who was raised in an affluent Cairo home before converting to violent extremism, had been on the run for 20 years.
After Osama bin Laden was assassinated by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011, he gained control of Al-Qaeda and a US$25 million (RM111.31 million) reward was placed on his head.
The Afghan interior ministry rejected over the weekend claims that a drone had attacked Kabul, saying to AFP that a rocket had instead hit "an empty home" in the city, leaving no injuries.
However, earlier today in Kabul, a home in the Sherpur neighborhood of the city was the target of an "aerial strike," according to a tweet from Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.
The United States asserting its power in Kabul against the Taliban
"At first, the incident's nature remained a mystery. The Islamic Emirate's security and intelligence organizations looked into the situation and determined from their first inquiries that American drones were used in the attack, according to his tweet.
The Taliban usually deny or minimize any losses, and in recent months they have generally prohibited the media from documenting the aftermath of security events.
The announcement comes one month before the first anniversary of the US military's full departure from Afghanistan, which resulted in the Taliban insurgency taking control of the nation after two decades of conflict with Western forces.
After the Taliban agreed to an agreement in Doha in 2020, the US departed, but analysts think the organization never severed its links with Al-Qaeda and instead continued to use Afghanistan as a base for worldwide warfare.
Zawahiri, 71, gave gladly of his analytical abilities to the Al-Qaeda cause while lacking the powerful charm that helped bin Laden inspire Islamists throughout the globe.
He was thought to be bin Laden's personal doctor as well as the principal strategist, the genuine mastermind who oversaw operations, including the September 11 attacks - AFP, August 2, 2022.
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