Biden: US Kills Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman Al Zawahiri

The United States has killed the leader of al-Qaeda, President Joe Biden confirmed on Monday.

“On Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully concluded an airstrike in Kabul Afghanistan that killed the Emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri,” Biden said in an address at the White House.

American forces conducted the precision drone strike on Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan, Biden said, after the U.S. intelligence community located the al-Qaeda leader earlier this year. Biden said the strike did not lead to civilian casualties.

The spokesperson for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, wrote on Twitter on Monday that “an air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city” the past Sunday. Mujahid said the attack was conducted by American drones.

Zawahiri succeeded Osama bin Laden as the leader in June 2011, when bin Laden was killed by the U.S. military.

The FBI listed Zawahiri as a “most wanted terrorist,” for the murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States (pdf).

Biden called Zawahiri the “number two” at the time of the 911 terrorist attack and “the mastermind” behind attacks against Americans “for decades.”

Zawahiri was also indicted for his alleged role in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, according to an FBI wanted notice (pdf). Biden said the embassy attack killed 224 people and wounded 4,500 others. Zawahiri is also believed to have plotted the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed.

Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri (R), an Egyptian linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group, during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured) in an image supplied by Dawn newspaper on Nov. 10, 2001. (Hamid Mir/Editor/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn/Handout