WASHINGTON: Monday's President Joe Biden stated Monday that an American drone strike in Afghanistan on Saturday killed Ayman al Zawahri, the successor to Osama Bin Laden.
ET Saturday night marks the first U.S. strike in Afghanistan since the end of America's 20 year war in Afghanistan. According to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the strikes killed al-Zawahri, the senior leader of al Qaida since 2011. Biden spoke from the White House balcony after he recovered from COVID-19. He called al-Zawahri the "mastermind" behind decades of attacks on the U.S. Biden stated that he was bin Laden's top deputy in the 2001 terrorist attacks. He also helped to carry out the 2000 bombings on the USS Cole and 1998 bombings on U.S embassies at Tanzania and Kenya.
"After carefully considering clear evidence of his location, he has been removed from the battlefield once for all," Biden stated. The official stated that Al-Zawahri’s death is a "significant blow" to the group's ability, including against the U.S homeland. According to the official, Biden claimed that al-Zawahri continued to give strategic direction to the terrorist network. He also made videos calling for further attacks against the U.S. According to the official, Al-Zawahri was identified later.
Zawahri spoke better English than bin Laden. He also did a lot behind-the scenes to unify and maintain the various al-Qaida groups. Sen. Joni Ernst (Republican from Iowa) praised the announcement. However, some U.S. counterterrorism officials dismissed the significance of the strike by saying that al-Zawahri never truly stepped in to the void left after bin Laden's death. Al-Zawahri wrote in 1998 that killing Americans and their supporters anywhere in the world was an individual duty for all Muslims who are able to do so in every country. He played a crucial role in bin Laden's oversight of the suicide hijackings three years later. They were planned and executed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani ally.
The 9/11 Commission and other investigative agencies didn't pay as much attention to Al-Zawahri’s role in 9/11 as Mohammed and bin Laden. His leadership of the large contingent of Egyptians who had traveled to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida provided the financial, organizational and operational expertise necessary to execute the attacks. Mohammed Atta was the ringleader of the 9/11 plot and a fellow Egyptian. Many of the top commanders of Al Zawahri were also Egyptians. He was the leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad which was responsible for the assassination in 1981 of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
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