Al-Qaeda leader Al-Zawahri killed in US airstrike in Afghanistan

Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the leader of al-Qaeda, was killed overnight Saturday-Sunday in a US airstrike in the Afghan capital Kabul, it was announced on Monday night (local time; in the early hours of today Greek time) US President Joe Biden, a development that marks a new heavy blow for this terrorist organization.

“On Saturday, under my orders, the United States conducted an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed the emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri,” the US president said during an emergency televised address from the White House. .

“Justice has been served,” added Joe Biden, “this terrorist leader is no more.” “We never give up,” he added.

Ayman al-Zawahri was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. Washington offered a $25 million reward for any information leading to his location.

He assumed leadership of this jihadi cloud in 2011, after the death of Osama bin Laden in a US Special Forces operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

On the run for over ten years, he was considered one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington (more than 3,000 dead).

“Challenges”

“More than 20 years after 9/11, the US has finally finished off Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s close associate and successor,” Thomas Joslin, an expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a US think tank, commented on Twitter. “Although he had many flaws, he was not as insignificant as many analysts thought,” he added.

Inherited in 2011 to a weakened organization, Ayman al-Zawahri, 71, has multiplied franchises, partnerships with ideologically related organizations and alliances of opportunity, from the Arabian Peninsula to the Maghreb, from Somalia to Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

“Despite Zawahri’s leadership (…), the organization still faces many challenges. The main question is who will take over the administration of al-Qaeda after his death,” said Colin Clark, a researcher at the American think tank Soufan Group.

In late 2020, sources believed for some time that he had died of heart disease, but then the al-Qaeda leader reappeared on video.

Al-Qaeda had already lost its number 2, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who was killed in August 2020 on the streets of Tehran by Israeli agents in a covert operation on behalf of Washington, as the New York newspaper reported at the time Times.

“No civilian casualties”

The operation caused “no civilian casualties,” Mr. Biden assured in his speech.

The head of state also declared that Washington will never allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists ever again.

The development was announced nearly a year after the chaotic withdrawal of US and other Western military and diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to regain control of the country two decades later.

On February 3, Joe Biden announced the death of the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurasi, in an operation conducted in northern Syria.

In a televised address on the operation, the Democratic president had warned the leaders of jihadist organizations “we are after you and we will find you”.

This was the first known US airstrike in Kabul since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Mr. Biden’s announcement of the Egyptian surgeon’s death raises many questions for the Taliban, who had assured that they would not allow terrorist organizations to use Afghan territory as a haven after returning to power.

According to a Biden administration official, senior Taliban officials were aware of Zawahri’s presence in Kabul. Being there was a “clear violation” of the accords the Taliban signed with the US in Doha in 2020, according to Washington.