The United States killed al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend in a drone strike during a “successful counter-terrorist operation” in Afghanistan, according to US media.
Zawahiri, considered the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead in New York, became head of the terrorist organization after the 2011 death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of a US commando in Pakistan.
President Joe Biden will speak on television on Monday night about a “successful counterterrorism operation,” according to the White House, which did not provide details.
A US government official claimed that the US carried out a “counter-terrorist operation against a major al Qaeda target” in Afghanistan over the weekend, without mentioning Ayman al Zawahiri.
The operation “was successful and there were no civilian casualties,” he said.
According to US media, Ayman al-Zawahiri may have been killed in a drone attack carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The State Department was offering up to $25 million in reward for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of the al Qaeda leader.
This announcement comes almost a year after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to regain control of the country twenty years after they were overthrown.
In mid-July, the United States announced that it had killed the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, Maher al-Agal, during a drone attack, an operation that “significantly weakened the organization’s ability” “to prepare, finance and carry conduct operations in the region,” a US military spokesman said.
