US anti-terrorism operation kills Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, US president Joe Biden said on Monday, in the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

Mr Biden said none of Zawahiri’s family members were hurt and there were no civilian casualties. He added that Afghanistan would never again become a terrorist safe haven.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head, helped co-ordinate the September 11th, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Zawahiri was born into a prominent Egyptian family that included professors and an ambassador and became a physician. He founded Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which sought to overthrow the country’s security government. The organisation merged with al-Qaeda in 1998.

Zawahiri was charged by US prosecutors with having a role in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. He took over the leadership of al-Qaeda in 2011, shortly after American forces killed Osama bin Laden, a founder of the group, in Pakistan.

The State Department had offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to Zawahiri’s capture.

Prior to Mr Biden’s announcement, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters that lawmakers had been briefed on the US counterterrorism operation. He said, “I think it will be welcome news to Americans.”

A successful operation allows the Biden administration to claim vindication in its disputed pledge that the US would still be able to strike terrorist targets after pulling US troops out of Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders said on Twitter Monday that a US attack had struck a house in the Sherpur district of Kabul.

“The security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and found that the attack was carried out by American drones, according to the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed. He didn’t provide information on casualties. He condemned the assault as “a clear violation of international principles. - Bloomberg and Reuters