Today, the families of those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack are commemorating the death of Ayman al-Zawahi, the leader of al Qaeda, who was taken out by a CIA drone strike.
Al-Zawahiri, 71, was killed this weekend by two Hellfire “Ninja” missiles while he was standing on a balcony of his safe house in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Al-Zawahiri was Osama Bin Laden’s fanatical assistant and assisted in planning numerous attacks, including the 9/11 attack.
Brad Blakeman, a senior adviser to former President George W. Bush and the uncle of a first responder killed on 9/11, said Al-demise Zawahiri’s was “a long time coming.”
When the first plane struck the Twin Towers, Blakeman’s nephew Thomas Jurgens, a former Army medic, who was working as a court officer in New York, loaded up a jury van with first aid supplies and headed to the tumultuous scene. Jurgens, however, passed away following the second plane strike, and his corpse was never found.
It was a long day coming, Blakeman said to Fox News in reference to the assassination of Al-Zawahiri. If there had been a chance, it ought to have been completed a long time ago.
When terrorists are being harboured in independent nations like Afghanistan and Pakistan, as in the case of (Osama) bin Laden, why is it that the United States is always the one to take action against them?
Why are these nations providing a haven for these terrorists and murderers? he asked.
So, even while I applaud the US for its courageous move, I’m furious that these nations are sheltering such vile individuals.
Firefighter James Dowdell received word of the killing of the most sought fugitive in the 9/11 murders of his father, FDNY Lt. Kevin Dowdell, and 342 other FDNY personnel when he was in the quarters of Rescue Co. 2 in Brooklyn.
He told the Daily Beast, “Thank God for the military.” “They’re still finishing it,”
Just when the younger of fallen Kevin Dowdell’s two sons started to feel that people were forgetting about 9/11, the news that Ayman al-Zawahiri had been killed broke.
Patrick Dowdell, his older brother, was in route to Afghanistan to serve in the military.
He currently works in cybersecurity and sales. He and his small family were at home when a buddy called to check on him regarding Zawahiri.
Never forget, we always say,” Patrick remarked. It’s encouraging to see that the government as a whole doesn’t. The evil guys are still being pursued by them.
Despite the brothers’ joy at hearing of al-passing, Zawahiri’s it did not match their 2011 celebrations of Osama bin Laden’s demise.
The Dowdell brothers travelled to Ground Zero on that day and joined the shout, “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!”
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s president and CEO, Alice M. Greenwald, stated that Zawahiri’s passing “demonstrates how the 9/11 story continues to evolve, even 21 years later, and reinforces the need for us to keep educating younger generations about the continued impact of 9/11 on the world we live in today.”
Al-Zawahiri was assassinated this past weekend in a mission that took six months to arrange as he stood on the balcony of his safe house in a posh section of downtown Kabul.
Although they were present when he passed away, his wife, daughter, and grandchildren were unharmed, according to American officials.
The chief adviser to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, who is acquainted with senior al Qaeda figures and is wanted by the FBI for questioning, owned the property that was the target of the strike.
In a sombre and ironic turn of events, the Taliban’s hosting of Al-Qaeda militants was what originally motivated the US to invade Afghanistan in 2001.
Last August, US and NATO forces abruptly withdrew from Afghanistan, turning the nation over to the Taliban.
When President Joe Biden revealed that CIA drone strike had killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, he frequently referred to the September 11 terrorist atrocities.
He declared, “Justice has been done, and this terrorist leader is no more.”
We reiterated tonight that the United States will track you out and eliminate you if you pose a threat to our citizens, regardless of how long it takes or where you hide.
Biden outlined al-position Zawahiri’s within the terrorist group, adding that he was responsible for the USS Cole bombing in 2000 and the attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, in addition to the 9/11 attacks.
In the words of Vice President Joe Biden, “He carved a trail of murder and brutality against American civilians, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests.”
“To those around the world who continue to seek to damage the United States, hear me now,” Biden warned as he put an end to his speech.
To guarantee the safety and security of Americans at home and abroad, we will constantly be watchful, take appropriate action, and follow through on our commitments.
Since the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011, it was the US’s most significant attack against al Qaeda. Bin Laden was succeeded by al-Zawahiri as the terrorist group’s chief commander.
Biden delivered his speech from the first-floor balcony off the Blue Room of the White House while still in isolation due to a COVID relapse.
The FBI’s most wanted terrorists list included Al-Zawahiri. A $25 million reward was offered for information that led directly to him.
Other incidents in the fatal assault:
In a statement, the Taliban denounced the airstrike and said it “violated international values”;
Saif al-Adel, a cunning, military-trained operative, emerged as al-apparent Qaeda’s successor following the murder; Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy claimed Biden permitted the organisation to reemerge.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, stated that a strike had occurred and strongly denounced it as a breach of “international standards” in a statement.
The attack was carried out on a residence in the affluent Sherpur district of Kabul, where senior Taliban government officials dwell.
Two R9X missiles, a hellfire missile with long blades intended to kill targets with kinetic energy to limit significant collateral damage, struck Al-Zawahiri as he stood on the balcony of the three-story house.
Hellfire missiles are frequently employed against valuable targets since they were designed for precise drone strikes.
After U.S. intelligence officials learnt that al-Zawahiri had just gone to Afghanistan, the strike was carried out at 6:18 am on Sunday in Kabul and at 9:48 pm on Saturday in the US.
On a background briefing call with reporters prior to Biden’s address, a senior administration official said, “This year we identified that al-Zawahiri family his wife, his daughter, and her children relocated to a safe house in Kabul.”
According to the official, Al-Zawahiri was never observed leaving the safe place.
The official claimed that only al-Zawahiri was killed and that his family had been relocated from the safe house “to another location consistent with a broader effort to cover up that they had been living in the space” by members of the Haqqani network, a terrorist organisation that is affiliated with the Taliban government.
The official said that al-Zawahiri family members were present in different areas of the safe house at the time of the attack, were purposely not targeted, and escaped harm.
On July 1, Biden first learned of Al-whereabouts. Zawahiri’s Their intelligence, according to the official, was “rock solid.”
According to the official, Biden asked “specific questions” about their intelligence, looked at a model of the house that intelligence personnel had constructed and brought into the Situation Room for him to see, and inquired about the likelihood of civilian casualties.
Biden decided to sanction the strike on July 25th.
He paid special attention to making sure that every precaution had been taken to ensure that the operation would reduce that risk. He also wanted to know the foundation of our assessments’ confidence. The official reported that the President had asked for more details on the construction plans and the possible consequences of a strike.
When the strike was carried out, Biden was in isolation with his rebound case of COVID, but the official said he was told when it started and when it finished.
The Biden administration also made it plain that al-presence Zawahiri’s in the Afghan capital city constituted a “clear violation” of the Doha accord, which set down the conditions for the departure of American troops from Afghanistan.
The person stated, “Of course, this is a very significant point for us to make clear that follow-up on that we want them to comply by the provisions of the Doha deal, and the presence of al-Zawahiri in downtown Kabul was an obvious violation of that.”
We will continue to hold the Taliban accountable for their deeds moving ahead, the authorities said.
According to the conditions of the agreement, which are clear that al Qaeda should never be let to reestablish itself in Afghanistan, “We will take action to preserve our interests.”
Since American forces left Afghanistan last year, this was the country’s first attack. Planning took six months.
In his remarks, President Biden asserted that the drone attack on al-Zawahiiri was proof that he was correct when he assured Americans last summer that withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan would not jeopardise the country’s ability to combat terrorism.
“Almost a year ago, I decided to stop our military operation in Afghanistan because I believed that, after 20 years of war, the United States no longer need thousands of troops there to defend the country from terrorists who wanted to kill us.
And I pledged to the American people that we would keep carrying out successful counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere. That’s exactly what we did, he said.
Bin Laden was killed in an operation by American soldiers in Pakistan in 2011, and Al-Zawahiri assumed control of Al Qaeda.
He was charged in 1998 for his suspected involvement in the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998.
On August 7, 1998, two bombs detonated almost simultaneously in front of the American embassies in Africa’s Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The explosions resulted in 224 fatalities, including 12 Americans, and more than 4,500 injuries.
In late 2001, he and bin Laden both managed to elude American troops in Afghanistan.
The location of Zawahiri had long been unknown.
Since late 2020, there have been rumours that al-Zawahiri passed away from illness.
But in April, he made an appearance in a fresh video where he attacked the “enemy of Islam.”
He showed up when a school in India forbade students from donning the hijab.
Prior to April, Al-Zawahiri last made an appearance in a video on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year, months after the reports that he had passed away began to circulate.
He declared in that video that “Jerusalem will never be judaized” and supported al-Qaeda strikes, including one in Syria in January 2021 that was directed at Russian troops. Al-Zawahiri also brought up the US military’s departure from Afghanistan 20 years after the invasion, according to SITE.
Al-Zawahiri was a surgeon who was born in Egypt in 1951.
He was raised in an affluent area of Cairo, Egypt, the son of a well-known doctor and the grandson of illustrious academics.
Al-Zawahiri, an Islamic extremist, joined the banned Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation as a youngster and was imprisoned twice for his involvement in the attempt to assassinate two Egyptian leaders.
He soon rose to the position of commander of the organisation, which was committed to establishing an Islamic state in Egypt. In the 1980s, he joined the Mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
He became bin Laden’s personal doctor there after becoming friends and ally with him.
In 1998, he formally combined Egyptian Islamic Jihad with al Qaeda.
In a later fatwa, or ruling, the two men declared that “every Muslim has an obligation to murder and battle Americans and their allies, whether they are military or civilians.”
After establishing relations with the terrorist organisation in the late 1990s and early 2000s, doubts have been raised over whether the Taliban had welcomed the terrorist group back in the wake of Al-murder. Zawahiri’s
There is growing speculation about whether his living arrangements with Taliban interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani may complicate Western relations with the Taliban-run Afghanistan even further.
It comes after US President Joe Biden’s staff claimed that al-Kabul Zawahiri’s residence was known to the Haqqani Network leaders.
As soon as the attack was over, Haqqani agents surrounded the place and moved Zawahiri’s family. According to Charles Lister, head of the Middle East Institute, “a scathing indictment of Taliban legitimacy.”
It would lend more support to recent US intelligence reports that the Taliban government, known officially as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has permitted al-Qaeda to reemerge in Afghanistan after seizing power there last year.
Al-Qaeda was enjoying a “safe haven” in Afghanistan under the Taliban, according to UN security intelligence analysts who warned the nation might once again serve as a springboard for worldwide terrorist attacks in June.
Following the disclosure of the drone strike’s location, Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the House Republican Conference, said: “This news provides light on the likely resurgence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan following President Biden’s botched retreat a year ago.
The Biden administration must immediately give Congress a classified briefing on the rise of al-Qaeda in the region over the past year, the current threat posed by foreign terrorists to the United States, and the measures that must be taken to protect our nation and stop terrorists from entering the country.
Before the speech, Bill Roggio, a military analyst and managing editor of The Long War Journal, informed DailyMail.com that Biden would celebrate Zawahiri’s demise as a win.
The message tonight will be that the fight against terrorism was a big success. But in actuality, this proves that al-Qaeda has always been present in Afghanistan. stated Roggio.
He also noted that there is growing worry that the Taliban may be hosting al-Qaeda once more.
Al-Qaeda was no longer a threat, according to the Biden administration’s “great deception,” according to Roggio. It’s likely that Zawahiri was captured by the US because he was too self-assured and working in Kabul.
He wasn’t skulking in the mountains, I was told. He was reportedly being protected by a senior Taliban lieutenant. This will be touted by the Biden Administration as a demonstration of their “over-the-horizon” capabilities, but that’s the spitting image