INTERNATIONAL

The US has killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, a senior White House official confirmed on Monday evening.

The CIA carried out a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan on 31 July at 6:18 am local time, the official said during a background call. The Associated Press first reported that Zawahiri, 71, was killed.

“Now, justice has been delivered. And this terrorist leader is no more,” President Joe Biden said during remarks on Monday evening.

“No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The administration official said that senior Haqqani Taliban officials were aware that Zawahiri was at the location, a safe house in Afghanistan’s capital. The official said that the Taliban was not notified of the strike beforehand.

The official added that the strike was successful and there were no civilian casualties.

“His death deals a significant blow to al-Qaeda and will degrade the group’s ability to operate, including against the US homeland,” the official said.

Zawahiri’s leadership role in al-Qaeda was cited by the official as the legal basis for the strike – the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) has been continually used as a legal basis for US strikes in the Middle East.

The drone strike is the first one conducted in Afghanistan since Washington carried out a drone strike last August during the withdrawal from the country. That strike killed 10 civilians in Kabul and was heavily criticised by rights groups and US lawmakers.

Most wanted list

Born in 1951 to a prominent Cairo family, Zawahiri was a grandson of the grand imam of Al Azhar, one of Islam’s most important mosques.

He was raised in Cairo’s leafy Maadi suburb, a place favoured by expatriates from the Western nations he railed against.

“We have sacrificed and we are still ready for more sacrifices until the victory of Islam,” shouted Zawahiri, wearing a white robe, as fellow defendants enraged by Sadat’s peace treaty with Israel chanted slogans.

Zawahiri served a three-year jail term for illegal arms possession, but was acquitted of the main charges.

People who studied with Zawahiri at Cairo University’s Faculty of Medicine in the 1970s describe a lively young man who went to the cinema, listened to music and joked with friends.

“When he came out of prison he was a completely different person,” said a doctor who studied with Zawahiri and declined to be named.

Zawahiri took over the leadership of al-Qaeda following the assassination of Osama bin Laden on 2 May 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by US forces.

Zawahiri is believed to have been involved in some of al-Qaeda’s biggest operations, helping organise the 11 September 2001 attacks, when airliners hijacked by al-Qaeda were used to kill 3,000 people in the United States.

In 2001, both Zawahiri and bin Laden had escaped US forces in Afghanistan and the former’s whereabouts had long been a mystery.

According to a report by the United Nations late last month, the al-Qaeda leader was alive and living in Afghanistan and his “comfort and ability to communicate” coincided with the Taliban’s takeover of the country last August.

Doha agreement

The Taliban condemned the drone strike in a statement, saying it was a violation of the Doha peace agreement signed between them and the US government, and that the strike is harmful to mutual co-operation with Washington in the future.

The Doha agreement, signed by the Taliban and the US government, called for the withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan.

It also included a commitment the Taliban was expected to make to prevent “terrorism,” including renouncing al-Qaeda and preventing the group from using Afghan soil to plot attacks on the US. However, the deal did not explicitly mandate that the Taliban expel al-Qaeda.

The White House official, however, said that Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul was a violation of the Doha agreement.

“This is a very important point for us to make clear to the Taliban that we expect them to abide by the terms of the Doha agreement. And the presence of Zawahiri in downtown Kabul is a clear violation of that,” the US official said.

Zawahiri could potentially be succeeded by Saif al-Adel, who has been with the group since its early days.

Source: Middle East Eye