{"id":10663,"date":"2022-08-02T12:05:56","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T10:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=10663"},"modified":"2022-08-06T01:03:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T23:03:42","slug":"al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-in-us-drone-strike-in-kabul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/al-qaeda-leader-zawahiri-killed-in-us-drone-strike-in-kabul\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri killed in US drone strike in Kabul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The United States killed one of the world\u2019s most wanted men and&nbsp;Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri&nbsp;in a drone strike in Kabul, President Joe Biden announced on August 1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2022\/08\/01\/remarks-by-president-biden-on-a-successful-counterterrorism-operation-in-afghanistan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Biden said in a speech from the White House<\/span><\/a>. He said the mission was carefully planned and rigorously minimized the risk of harm to other civilians. The strike was ultimately carried out at 9:48 p.m. ET on July 30 by a drone firing so-called \u201chellfire\u201d missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Intelligence had located Zawahiri\u2019s family in Kabul earlier this year and he moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with immediate family members. However, none of his family members was killed in the attack and there were no civilian casualties, Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJustice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,\u201d Biden said in a televised address from outside the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully conducted an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed the emir of al-Qa\u2019ida: Ayman al-Zawahiri.<br> <br>Justice has been delivered.<\/p>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/POTUS\/status\/1554254893506068480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow we have eliminated the emir of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/tag\/al-qaeda\/\"><span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Al Qaeda<\/span><\/a>.&nbsp; He will never again allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone, and we\u2019re going to make sure that nothing else happens,\u201d Biden after a successful counterterrorism operation in&nbsp;Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biden described Zawahiri as number-two man of Osama bin Laden and his deputy at the time of the terrorist attack of 9\/11.&nbsp; \u201cHe was deeply involved in the planning of 9\/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil.&nbsp;For decades, he was a mastermind behind attacks against Americans, including the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors and wounded dozens more\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zawahiri also played a key role in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and wounding over 4,500 others, the U.S. President recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ayman-al-Zawahiri-with-Osama-Bin-Laden.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ayman-al-Zawahiri-with-Osama-Bin-Laden.jpeg?resize=822%2C493&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Ayman al-Zawahiri with Osama Bin Laden\" class=\"wp-image-10669\" width=\"822\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ayman-al-Zawahiri-with-Osama-Bin-Laden.jpeg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ayman-al-Zawahiri-with-Osama-Bin-Laden.jpeg?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ayman-al-Zawahiri-with-Osama-Bin-Laden.jpeg?resize=768%2C461&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><sup><em>Osama Bin Laden (left) and Ayman Al-Zawahiri together declared war on the US and planned the 9\/11 attacks. (Image Credit: Reuters)<\/em><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The drone strike was carried out on a residential house in the Sherpur area of Kabul. Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack in a statement. \u201cSuch actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the U.S., Afghanistan and the region,\u201d Mujahid said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>From Cairo physician to Al Qaeda leader &#8211; Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, has been a leader of Al Qaeda since 2011 after the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden.<\/li><li>He was an Egyptian surgeon who also acted as\u00a0bin Laden\u2019s personal physician at one point.<\/li><li>He had a $25m reward on his head for helping coordinate the\u00a0September 11, 2001 attacks\u00a0on the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people.<\/li><li>Zawahiri was one of five signatories to bin Laden&#8217;s 1998 \u2018fatwa\u2019 calling for attacks against Americans and began frequently appearing at the Al Qaeda leader\u2019s side.<\/li><li>He became involved with Egypt&#8217;s radical Islamist community at a young age and was reportedly jailed for three years in Egypt. He was among the hundreds of suspects arrested for the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-13789286\">\u00a0<\/a>He was not charged but sentenced to three years in prison for weapons possession.<\/li><li>He joined the Mujahedeen who were fighting Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s.<\/li><li>Zawahiri was indicted for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.<\/li><li>His wife and three children were killed in December 2001 in a U.S. attack on the family&#8217;s residence in Afghanistan.<\/li><li>He was killed in a U.S. drone strike authorized by U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday in the Afghan capital of Kabul.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/images\/Who-was-Zawahiri.jpg?resize=830%2C2390&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"830\" height=\"2390\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States killed one of the world\u2019s most wanted men and Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul, President Joe Biden announced on August 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1,125],"tags":[9,106,137,310,43,78,533,10,11,7],"class_list":["post-10663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","category-united-states","tag-afghanistan","tag-al-qaeda","tag-asia","tag-counterterrorism","tag-drone","tag-egypt","tag-south-asia","tag-taliban","tag-terrorism","tag-u-s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ayman-al-Zawahiri.jpeg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-2LZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10663"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10758,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions\/10758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}