US claims to have killed Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan
(Baonghean.vn) - According to AFP, US President Joe Biden announced on August 1 (local time) that the US had just eliminated Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri - one of the world's most wanted terrorists and the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in an interview in October 2001. Photo: Reuters |
In a televised address, Mr Biden said the attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, took place on Saturday. “I approved his killing,” the White House chief said, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
“Justice has been served and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden declared.
He added that he hoped this would help “bring closure to the pain” of the families of the victims who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“I hope this decisive action will bring some measure of closure to the tragedy,” he said.
A senior US administration official said Zawahiri was killed on the balcony of a house in Kabul in a drone strike, and that there were no US military personnel on the ground in Afghanistan.
The official also said that Zawahiri's presence in the Afghan capital Kabul was a "clear violation" of the agreement the Taliban signed with the US in Doha in 2020, paving the way for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan.
This is the first known attack by the US against an Al-Qaeda target in Afghanistan since US forces withdrew from the country on August 31, 2021.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor born and raised in a wealthy family in Cairo, turned to violent extremism and has been in hiding for 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
He took over the Al-Qaeda gang after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in 2011, and there was a $25 million reward for anyone leading to his death.
In recent years, there have been several rumors about Zawahiri's death, and it has long been reported that he was in poor health./.
