Yemie ADEOYE

Texas-THE United States has officially announced the killing of al Qaeda leader and former Osama Bin-Laden deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, outside Kabul, Afghanistan according to President Joe Biden.

Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama Bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden’s personal physician.

President Biden stated in a speech outside the Whitehouse that the United States has intensely searched for Al-Zawahiri under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump.

The US intelligence community located Al-Zawahiri earlier this year as he moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family.

“After carefully considering clear and convincing evidence of his location, I authorize the precision strike that will remove him from the battlefield once and for all.

This mission was carefully planned, rigorously to minimize the harm to other civilians, and one week ago, after being advised that the conditions were optimal, I gave the final approval to go get him. The mission was a success. none of his family members were hurt, and there were no civilian casualties” Mr. Biden enthused.

Biden, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday as he deals with a rebound case of the virus, spoke outdoors from the Blue Room Balcony at the White House in a speech monitored by our reporter a few minutes ago.

Meanwhile, In a series of tweets, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, “An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31.”

He said, “The nature of the incident was not apparent at first” but the security and intelligence services of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident, and “initial findings determined that the strike was carried out by an American drone.”

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Mujahid said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan “strongly condemns this attack on any pretext and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.”

Zawahiri comes from a distinguished Egyptian family, according to the New York Times. His grandfather, Rabia’a al-Zawahiri, was an imam at al-Azhar University in Cairo. His great-uncle, Abdel Rahman Azzam, was the first secretary of the Arab League.

He eventually helped to mastermind the deadliest terror attack on American soil, when hijackers turned US airliners into missiles.

“Those 19 brothers who went out and gave their souls to Allah almighty, God almighty has granted them this victory we are enjoying now,” al-Zawahiri said in a videotaped message released in April 2002.

It was the first of many taunting messages the terrorist — who became al Qaeda’s leader after US forces killed bin Laden in 2011 — would send out over the years, urging militants to continue the fight against America and chiding US leaders.

Zawahiri was constantly on the move once the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began after the September 11, 2001, attacks. At one point, he narrowly escaped a US onslaught in the rugged, mountainous Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, an attack that left his wife and children dead.

He made his public debut as a Muslim militant when he was in prison for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

“We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we? Who are we?” he said in a jailhouse interview.

By that time, al-Zawahiri, a young doctor, was already a committed terrorist who conspired to overthrow the Egyptian government for years and sought to replace it with fundamentalist Islamic rule. He proudly endorsed Sadat’s assassination after the Egyptian leader made peace with Israel.

He spent three years in prison after Sadat’s assassination and claimed he was tortured while in detention. After his release, he made his way to Pakistan, where he treated wounded mujahadeen fighters who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
That was when he met bin Laden and found a common cause.

“We are working with brother bin Laden,” he said in announcing the merger of his terror group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, with al Qaeda in May 1998. “We know him for more than 10 years now. We fought with him here in Afghanistan.”
Together, the two terror leaders signed a fatwa, or declaration: “The judgment to kill and fight Americans and their allies, whether civilians or military, is an obligation for every Muslim.”

The attacks against the United States and its facilities began weeks later, with the suicide bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 5,000 others. Zawahiri and bin Laden gloated after they escaped a US cruise missile attack in Afghanistan that had been launched in retaliation.

Then, there was the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, when suicide bombers on a dinghy detonated their boat, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 others.

The culmination of Zawahiri’s terror plotting came on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A fourth hijacked airliner, headed for Washington, crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.

Since then, al-Zawahiri raised his public profile, appearing on numerous videos and audiotapes to urge Muslims to join the jihad against the United States and its allies. Some of his tapes were followed closely by terrorist attacks.
In May 2003, for instance, almost simultaneous suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 23 people, including nine Americans, days after a tape thought to contain Zawahiri’s voice was released.

The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to his capture. A June 2021 United Nations report suggested he was located somewhere in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that he may have been too frail to be featured in propaganda.

President Biden further stated that all US allies around the world have been duly informed of the development, as well as the US Congres. According to him the United States will continue to carry out its counter-terrorism mission around the world, and especially in Afghanistan, in spite of its evacuation of all American boots on the ground on Afghan soil.