EXPLAINER
Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a drone assault that focused a home in central Kabul, Afghanistan, in response to the US.
The US has confirmed the killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone assault in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Al-Zawahiri, who had a $25m US reward on his head, is considered one of many masterminds behind the September 11, 2001 assaults in opposition to the US. He had taken over the armed group after the US killing of the then al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Here’s what we all know to date concerning the assault:
What’s the US saying?
- Biden greenlit the high-precision assault by the CIA, which came about on July 31, whereas he was recovering in isolation from COVID-19 a couple of days earlier.
- US intelligence officers had tracked down al-Zawahiri to a house in central Kabul the place he was staying along with his household.
- Biden stated he hoped al-Zawahiri’s dying would convey “closure” to households of the three,000 folks killed within the US on 9/11, saying “justice has been delivered”.
- No civilians had been killed, Biden stated, and warned that Washington wouldn’t enable Afghanistan to turn out to be a “terrorist secure haven” once more.
- A senior US administration official stated al-Zawahiri was on the balcony of a home in Kabul when he was focused with two Hellfire missiles, an hour after dawn.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the Taliban of “grossly” violating the Doha Settlement by internet hosting and sheltering al-Zawahiri. Signed by the Taliban and the US within the Qatari capital in 2020, the pact facilitated the withdrawal of worldwide forces from Afghanistan.
What has been the Taliban’s response?
- The Taliban, which returned to energy in Afghanistan final 12 months, confirmed the strike, with out naming al-Zawahiri.
- It condemned the drone strike as a “violation of worldwide rules” and a violation of the Doha Settlement.
- Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated the hit was carried out on a residential home within the Sherpur space of Kabul, the place many Taliban leaders reside.
- Mujahid stated the US assault was a “repetition of the failed experiences of the previous 20 years and are in opposition to the pursuits of the US, Afghanistan and the area”.
Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri?
- Al-Zawahiri, a surgeon by coaching, was born in Cairo in 1951 right into a middle-class household of medical doctors and students.
- He was reportedly arrested as younger as 15 for being a member of the then-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
- In 1985, he left Egypt for Pakistan’s Peshawar, the place he labored as a physician treating fighters wounded in battles in opposition to Soviet forces occupying neighbouring Afghanistan.
- He was indicted within the US for his position within the August 7, 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 folks and wounded greater than 5,000 others.
- He’s additionally believed to have plotted the October 12, 2000 assault on the USS Cole naval vessel in Yemen which killed 17 US sailors and wounded greater than 30 others.
- Al-Zawahiri was second-in-command through the plotting of the 9/11 assaults, and took over after bin Laden was killed in 2011.
What has been the worldwide response?
- Saudi Arabia has welcomed the announcement of al-Zawahiri’s dying, saying “hundreds of harmless folks of various nationalities and religions, together with Saudi residents, had been killed” by terrorists below his management.
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated the ideas of Australians are with the households of all of the victims of al-Zawahri’s “acts of terror”.
- Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, additionally stated al-Zawahiri’s killing was “a step towards a safer world”.
