A US drone strike in Afghanistan has k#lled Osama bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became the leader of al-Qaeda following the k#lling of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011.
Confirming the report, President Joe Biden of the US in a post on Instagram described the de@th of al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, as a huge blow to the Al Qaeda terr@rist network, masterminds of the September 11 2001 att@cks on U.S.
“Justice has been delivered and this terr@rist leader is no more,” Biden said in a special televised address from outside the White House
Al-Zawahiri, 71, who is said to be one of the world’s most de@dliest terr@rist, is an Egyptian surgeon with a $25m bounty on his head for helping to mastermind the 9/11 att@cks in which four civilian aircrafts were hijacked and used to cr#sh the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon near Washington and a Pennsylvania field, k#lling about 3,000 people.
According to White House officials, Al-Zawahiri was spotted on a balcony on numerous occasions after he moved into a safe house with his family in downtown Kabul, where he continued to produce al-Qaida propaganda videos for several months before he met his waterloo.
President Biden was said to have ordered the att@ck on the safe house at a meeting of key cabinet members and national security officials on 25 July, having ensured that every step had been taken to ensure the operation would minimize risk and casualties.
A White House official explained that though al-Zawahiri’s family members were present in the safe house during the strike, they were not targeted nor h@rmed.
“We have no indications that civilians were h@rmed in the strike. We took every possible precaution to avoid civilian h@rm,” the official further noted.
