Biden confirms successful assassination of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri

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President Joe Biden speaks from the Blue Room balcony of the White House in Washington on Aug. 1, 2022. (Jim Watson-Pool/Getty Images)

On Monday, President Joe Biden revealed that the United States had eliminated the Al Qaeda head.

"On Saturday, at my direction, the United States conducted a successful airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan that resulted in the death of the Emir of al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri," Biden stated in a White House address.

Biden stated that American soldiers executed the drone strike on the Al Qaeda chief in Kabul, Afghanistan after U.S. intelligence identified Zawahiri earlier this year. Biden noted that the strike had no civilian deaths.

The Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, posted on Monday that an airstrike was conducted on a residence in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul. Mujahid stated that American drones led the attack.

Al Zawahiri succeeded Osama bin Laden as commander in June 2011, when the United States military killed bin, Laden.

The FBI designated Al Zawahiri as a "most wanted terrorist" for the murder of U.S. citizens abroad.

Biden referred to Zawahiri as the "number two" terrorist at the time of the 9/11 attacks and the "mastermind" behind "decades" of attacks against Americans.

According to an FBI wanted notice, Zawahiri was also indicted for his alleged role in the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, on August 7, 1998. Biden stated that the embassy attack resulted in 224 deaths and 4,500 injuries. Zawahiri is also suspected of plotting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, in which 17 American sailors were killed.

A report from the United Nations Security Council dated 2021 stated that Zawahiri was "ailing" in Afghanistan at the time and that Sayf-Al Adl, who resided in the Islamic Republic of Iran, was Zawahiri's "most likely successor."

A year after the Biden administration concluded the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the attack occurred.

"When I ended our military mission in Afghanistan nearly a year ago, I made the decision that after 20 years of war, the United States no longer required thousands of troops on the ground in Afghanistan to protect us from terrorists," Biden stated.

Publish : 2022-08-02 07:28:00

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