Al-Zawahiri, 71, was regarded by American officials as Osama bin Laden’s number-two. He was a key architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and succeeded bin Laden as the head of the infamous terror organisation in 2011.
The attack took place at 6:18 am local time, or 9:48 pm on Saturday, in an Afghan safe house where the elderly terrorist had taken refuge.
Al-Zawahiri was standing on the balcony of the safe house in the centre of Kabul when the CIA’s drones launched two hellfire missiles, killing him.
The jihadist, who was of Egyptian descent, reportedly continued to linger on the landing, as US intelligence had recorded he did frequently, giving the drone plenty of time to carry out the strike.
According to sources, the mission took six months to prepare, but it was the culmination of a much larger, carefully planned campaign to find and kill the al Qaeda leader, who had up until this point managed to elude American forces.
The killing occurred more than 11 years after bin Laden was assassinated in Pakistan by U.S. Navy Seals on May 2, 2011, following a nearly 10-year search for the 9/11 mastermind in a more direct, drone-free strike.
On Monday evening, President Joe Biden said that a CIA drone strike had killed al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s fanatical deputy and the brains behind numerous strikes over the past 20 years that have claimed thousands of American lives.
Al-Zawahiri assisted in the planning of the September 11 terrorist attacks, which Biden frequently brought up in his remarks.
Biden claimed that the killing of the world’s top terrorist target showed the U.S.’s determination to pursue terrorist leaders, regardless of where they hide or how long it takes.
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.
Al-Zawahiri, 71, was assassinated last weekend in a mission that took six months to arrange when two Hellfire “Ninja” missiles with extended blades were fired from CIA drones as he stood on the balcony of his safe house in a posh section of downtown Kabul.
Despite living with him, 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.
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.
Al-Zawahiri took over for bin Laden as the terrorist organization’s main figure.
Al-Zawahiri was listed as one of the FBI’s top-ten most-wanted terrorists, and a $25 million reward was offered for information that led directly to his capture.
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian who was born in 1951 to a wealthy family in Cairo, initially caught the attention of law enforcement in the 1990s, not long after Bin Laden founded the terrorist organisation in 1988, of which al-Zawahiri was already a member.
The two terrorists allegedly first met in the late 1980s, when al-Zawahiri allegedly kept the Saudi rich safe from Soviet bombardments that were then frequent in the area in Afghanistan’s caves.
He was appointed Bin Laden’s deputy in 1998, which increased his visibility because he started to appear with the Saudi national at al-Qaeda-organized news conferences to express his anti-American views and rally support from other Muslims.
Al-Zawahiri, who was 47 at the time, was charged with involvement in the bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August 7, 1998.
Nearly simultaneous explosives detonated in front of the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi on August 7, resulting in the deaths of 224 people, including 12 Americans, and more than 4,500 injuries.
Al-Zawahiri had bolstered the terror organisation at the time by merging it with his own organisation, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he had started in the 1980s.
Al-Zawahiri was radicalised after he and hundreds of militants were tortured in Egyptian prison following the Islamic fundamentalists’ assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Then, while eluding Egyptian security, he would assist in refining the organisation in secret in his own country until it attracted supporters in every corner of the world.
Al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden, and several others would carry out the infamous September 11 attacks after years of covertly putting together suicide attackers, funds, and plans.
This put him and other conspirators at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
Al-Zawahiri would then go into hiding and work to protect al-Qaeda members from the ensuing global manhunt, while also reassembling the group’s shattered leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and acting as the organization’s supreme leader over branches in Iraq, Asia, and Yemen.
Al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden would claim responsibility for a number of attacks in Europe and Africa in the years that followed, while U.S. forces successfully apprehended several suspects in the 9/11 plot.
Al-Zawahiri bin Laden would manage to elude American forces and hide elsewhere in the Middle East despite efforts that included a combination of relentless raids, missile, and drone strikes.
It would take the U.S. military about ten years to locate at least one of the terrorist organization’s elusive top leaders, with a team of U.S. Navy seals killing Osama bin Laden, then 54, at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Al-Zawahiri took over as group leader at this point, taking over immediately after the passing of his friend.
Later, over a period of months, U.S. intelligence would learn from sources with “increased confidence” that the terror leader’s family had moved to an unidentified Middle Eastern safe house.
After rumours surfaced in 2020 that the al-Qaueda leader had passed away from illness, the next piece of information regarding his whereabouts would not surface for another ten years.
However, those rumours were dispelled the following year on September 11th, the 20th anniversary of the attacks, when al-Zawahiri made an appearance in a video where he praised the American military’s departure from Afghanistan 20 years after the invasion.
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.
The unexpected location apparently gave no hints to American officials as to al-whereabouts, Zawahiri’s but seven months later, senior security officials in the US were reportedly alerted of ‘growing intelligence’ indicating he and his family were back in Afghanistan.
The turning point occurred in April, when U.S. officials discovered that the terrorist leader’s wife, daughter, and children had moved into the same al-Qaeda safehouse that was bombed over the weekend in Kabul.
When authorities discovered that al-Zawahiri was also present at the residence, a proposal to build a scale model of the multi-story, terraced complex was put into motion.
When al-Zawahiri was known to like relaxing on the balcony of his residence, President Joe Biden took the model into the White House Situation Room where he, along with other senior security officials, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, would plan the strike.
After painstakingly creating “a pattern of life” for the terrorist leader, the group said on Monday that they were certain he was on the balcony when the missiles were launched.
Only a select number of employees in significant agencies within the government, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, were given access to the highly confidential planning process.
Al-Zawahiri would continue to produce videos criticising the United States and its allies during this time as the U.S. studied the “construction and nature of the safe house” and building integrity so the strike could kill the target without endangering bystanders.
After validating the identities of everyone inside, U.S. officials quickly “systematically eliminated all feasible options” (other than a strike).
Before executing the top-secret operation, “key” agencies were allegedly brought into the process to ensure that the intelligence was “rock solid.”
Biden called a number of meetings with advisers and cabinet members during the final several weeks of this time period to examine the intelligence and consider various updates regarding the current situation.
On July 1, Biden received a briefing regarding the operation in the Situation Room and carefully inspected a model of the house where al-Zawahiri was taking cover.
On Thursday, he gave the procedure his final blessing.
The jihadist had been standing on the balcony of his hideout when the early-morning strike was carried out, exactly as U.S. officials had intended.
Biden said in his Monday night speech, “He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happen.” “This terrorist leader has left the scene.”
The Taliban government of Afghanistan criticised the United States for assassinating al-Zawahiri with a drone strike, stating that it was “strongly condemning this attack and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” the 2020 agreement between the United States and the Taliban that resulted in the withdrawal of American forces.
According to the statement, such actions go against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region and are a repetition of the unsuccessful experiences of the previous 20 years.
The Taliban, according to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, did not “abide by their commitment” to stop Al Qaeda from functioning in regions under their control, as stated in the Trump administration’s arrangement.
“We will continue to support the Afghan people with robust humanitarian assistance and to advocate for the protection of their human rights, especially of women and girls,” Blinken said in a statement on Monday. “In the face of the Taliban’s unwillingness or inability to abide by their commitments.”
Additionally, he praised the execution of al-Zawahiri and the American military’s “determination to fight against terrorist threats.”
“We have followed through on our promise to counter terrorist threats coming from Afghanistan.
He declared that the murder of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had made the world a safer place before announcing that the US would continue to take action against anyone posing a threat to our nation, our citizens, or our friends.
Al-Qaeda was enjoying a “safe haven” in Afghanistan under the Taliban, according to UN security intelligence experts who warned the nation could once again serve as a base for international 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.
However, this actually indicates that al-Qaeda has always been present in Afghanistan. said Roggio.
He also cautioned that there is growing worry that the Taliban may be harbouring al-Qaeda once more.
Al-Qaeda was no longer a threat, according to the Biden administration’s “big lie,” according to Roggio. It’s likely that Zawahiri was captured by the US because he was too self-assured and operating in Kabul.
‘He wasn’t hiding away in the mountains. We’re hearing that he was being housed by a key Taliban deputy.
‘The Biden Administration is going to promote this as some victory of their ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities, but that’s the spin.’