Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, killed in US drone attack

Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of al-Qaeda after his death in May 2011, was assassinated by a US drone strike in Afghanistan.

In confirming the claim, US President Joe Biden said that the death of Osama Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was a devastating blow to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, which was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US.

Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon with a $25 million bounty on his head, is thought to be one of the deadliest terrorists in the world. He is responsible for helping to plan the 9/11 attacks, in which four civilian aircraft were hijacked and used to crash the World Trade Center twin towers in New York, the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania, killing about 3,000 people.

Al-Zawahiri moved into a safe house with his family in downtown Kabul, where he continued to make al-Qaida propaganda videos for several months before he met his end, according to White House officials. On numerous occasions, he was seen standing on a balcony.

At a meeting of important cabinet members and national security officials on July 25, President Biden is alleged to have given the order to assault the safe house after making sure that every precaution had been taken to ensure the operation would minimize risk and casualties.

"Ayman al-Zawahiri was hit by two Hellfire missiles and died. We are confident that we killed al-Zawahiri and nobody else thanks to our intelligence procedures and sources, including several streams of intelligence, a White House official said.

Al-Zawahiri's family members were there in the safe home during the attack, the official said, but they were neither targeted nor hurt.

"We have no evidence that the strike caused any harm to civilians. We took every safety measure to protect civilians," the official added.

Source