AL-QAEDA: According to the US president, Joe Biden, the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan, giving a major boost to the US war against terror and to Biden`s presidency.
The Al-Qaeda leader was killed in a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday.
Ayman al-Zawahiri was the successor of the notorious Bin Laden, the former Al-Qaeda leader who oversaw the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in New York, United States of America.
Notable Quotes
According to Mr. Biden, “Zawahiri had carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens”.
” Now justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more.”
Clariform recalls that Zawahiri took over al-Qaeda after the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. He and Bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks together and he was one of the US’s “most wanted terrorists.
How he was Killed:
Officials said Zawahiri was on the balcony of his house when the drone fired two missiles at him.
Other family members were present, but they were unharmed and only Zawahiri was killed in the attack.
Biden said that the killing of Zawahiri will bring closure to families of the nearly 3,000 victims of the 2001 attacks.
In his words:
“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 US president continued, “we shall never waver from defending our nation and its people”.
Biden said Zawahiri had also masterminded other acts of violence, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole naval destroyer in Aden in October 2000 which killed 17 US sailors, and the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 223 people died.
He insisted that Afghanistan would never again become a safe haven for terrorists.
