Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda, was killed in a drone attack by the United States, according to President Joe Biden on Monday. He also said that “justice had been delivered” to the families of the September 11 attacks.
In a solemn televised speech, Biden claimed to have given the final approval for the highly-targeted attack that killed Zawahiri in the Afghan capital over the weekend.
Biden declared that “justice has been delivered” and that “this terrorist leader is no more,” adding that he hoped Zawahiri’s demise will allow the families of the 3,000 Americans lost on 9/11 to find “closure.”
On July 31, an hour after sunrise, two Hellfire missiles were fired at Zawahiri from the balcony of a house in Kabul, according to a senior administration official. There were no American troops present in Afghanistan at the time.
“As far as we know, he never left the safe house. We were able to identify Zawahiri repeatedly for extended periods of time on the balcony where he was eventually struck, the official said.
The official claims that the president authorized the strike on July 25 while he was recuperating in seclusion from Covid-19. According to Biden, the action did not result in any civilian casualties.
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.
“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 initial inquiries that American drones were used in the attack, according to his tweet.
The information was released one month before the first anniversary of the US military’s complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in the Taliban insurgency taking control of the nation after two decades of conflict with Western forces.