Ayman al-Zawahiri

A senior US official had told Reuters the US had conducted a successful operation against a 'significant al-Qaida target'

The official added that al-Zawahiri’s family members were present in other parts of the safe house at the time of the strike, were not targeted and were unharmed. The safe house used by al-Zawahiri is now empty.” He had a $25m bounty on his head. The official continued: “Two Hellfire missiles were fired at Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed. The strike was carried out at 9:48pm eastern time on Saturday by an unmanned aerial vehicle. “At the conclusion of the meeting, the president authorised a precise, tailored airstrike on the condition that a strike minimised to the greatest extent possible the risk of civilian casualties,” the official said in a background briefing call.

Al-Zawahiri was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, and led the organization after bin Laden was killed in 2011. He died in a U.S. drone strike in ...

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Biden announces he authorised drone strike to 'remove him from the battlefield once and for all'

The death of Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan is widely considered to be the biggest blow to the terrorist group since ...

Saudi Arabia has welcomed the death of the Al Qaeda leader, with a government spokesperson telling state media "Zawahiri is considered one of the leaders of terrorism that led the planning and execution of heinous terrorist operations in the United States and Saudi Arabia". "Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region," the statement said. He had been on their Most Wanted Terrorists list for years for the murder of US nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder US national outside the United States, and attacking a federal facility resulting in death. Along with Osama bin Laden, Zawahiri built the main infrastructure of Al Qaeda as a terrorist group, and he was considered crucial in the jihadi's movement, turning its focus to the United States, and plotting attacks against the country's civilians and military. Zawahiri has been the leader of Al Qaeda since 2011, and took over after its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US forces in Pakistan that year. US President Joe Biden has confirmed the death of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan.

"We never back down," says US President Joe Biden, following the drone strike that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mr Obama, in his memoirs, wrote that Mr Biden was concerned about "the enormous consequences of failure" and counselled the president to "defer any decision until the intelligence community was more certain that bin Laden was in the compound." A senior official said there were no US personnel on the ground in Kabul when the strike occurred, however, multiple intelligence sources gave "high confidence" that Zawahiri had been killed. He was indicted in the United States for his role in the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded more than 5,000 others. US officials say that senior members of the Taliban were aware of Zawahiri's presence in Kabul, and maintain that the US had a legal basis for their operation. Zawahiri was killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan, the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by a US operation in 2011. One US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a drone strike was carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital Kabul early Sunday morning.

A US drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Ayman al-Zawahiri , who helped Osama bin Laden plot...

About sunrise on Sunday, Zawahiri went outside on the balcony of a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, and apparently lingered there, as US intelligence had noted he often did. He was one of hundreds of militants captured and tortured in Egyptian prison after Islamic fundamentalists' assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981. An Egyptian, Zawahiri was born June 19, 1951, to a comfortable family in a Cairo suburb.

A US drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Ayman al-Zawahiri , who helped Osama bin Laden plot the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and ensured al-Qaeda survived and spread in the years after. President Joe Biden on Monday ...

About sunrise on Sunday, Zawahiri went outside on the balcony of a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, and apparently lingered there, as US intelligence had noted he often did. He was one of hundreds of militants captured and tortured in Egyptian prison after Islamic fundamentalists' assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981. An Egyptian, Zawahiri was born June 19, 1951, to a comfortable family in a Cairo suburb.

The doors of jihad opened for Ayman al-Zawahiri as a young doctor in a Cairo clinic, when a...

He promoted the use of suicide bombings to become al-Qaeda's hallmark. He merged his own militant cell with others to form the group Islamic Jihad and began trying to infiltrate the military. Then came the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat by Islamic Jihad militants. Bin Laden provided al-Qaeda with charisma and money, but Zawahiri brought tactics and organisational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells around the world. He rebuilt its leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions. It was mainly pro-democracy activists who toppled Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, the longtime goal Zawahiri failed to achieve.

Zawahiri helped found Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Al-Qaida was never able to regain its status as the pre ...

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

The doors of jihad opened for Ayman al-Zawahiri as a young doctor in a Cairo clinic, when a...

He promoted the use of suicide bombings to become al-Qaeda's hallmark. He merged his own militant cell with others to form the group Islamic Jihad and began trying to infiltrate the military. Then came the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat by Islamic Jihad militants. Bin Laden provided al-Qaeda with charisma and money, but Zawahiri brought tactics and organisational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells around the world. He rebuilt its leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions. It was mainly pro-democracy activists who toppled Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, the longtime goal Zawahiri failed to achieve.