US President Joe Biden confirmed the information that had previously appeared in the media about the elimination of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was one of the key organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks. His statement was released by the White House.
Biden turned to the Americans and said that, on his instructions, the United States launched an airstrike in Kabul, as a result of which al-Zawahiri was killed. The President specified that al-Zawahiri was Osama bin Laden's deputy and was with him all the time, and also took an active part in planning the September 11 attacks.
“He paved the way for killing and violence against American citizens, American military personnel, American diplomats. And since the United States took revenge on bin Laden 11 years ago, Zawahiri has been the leader of al-Qaeda.
Zawahiri was searched for years, but intelligence only discovered him earlier this year, Biden said. He moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with his immediate family. Biden said the mission was carefully planned and minimized the risk of harm to civilians. Everything went well, none of the members of the terrorist's family was injured, there were no civilian casualties, the president said.
Biden also reminded Americans of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021:
“When I ended our military mission in Afghanistan almost a year ago, I made the decision that, after 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the soil of Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists bent on harming us. And I promised the American people that we will continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond.”
The President noted that the United States conducted a special operation in Syria in February, during which the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed.
On August 1, the Assosiated Press, Politico and Reuters, citing sources, reported that al-Zawahiri had been killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan.
In 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a video of al-Zawahiri appeared online in which he says that “Jerusalem will never be Jewish” and praises the movement’s attacks. In the video, he mentioned the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, but did not touch on the topic of the takeover of the country by the Taliban. Even then there were suggestions that al-Zawahiri was dead. Rumors about his death from the disease appeared earlier – in 2020.
On September 11, 2001, a group of al-Qaeda suicide bombers carried out an attack on the United States. Militants hijacked four planes: two of them crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, another crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington, and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 2,977 people.