What is known about the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda killed by a US airstrike in Afghanistan

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“Justice has been served.” Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed overnight from Saturday to Sunday in Afghanistan by a US drone strike, US President Joe Biden announced Monday August 1 in a televised address. “On Saturday, on my orders, the United States carried out an airstrike on Kabul, Aghanistan, which killed the emir of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri”, did he declare.

The announcement of his death comes almost a year after the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which had allowed the Taliban to regain control of the country, twenty years later. In August 2020, the Al-Qaeda group had already lost its number 2, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, killed in the streets of Tehran (Iran) by Israeli agents during a secret mission sponsored by Washington, information revealed at the time by the New York Times (in English). Franceinfo summarizes what we know about the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri.

He was shot on his balcony by an American drone

The 71-year-old former number 1 of Al-Qaeda was struck very early on Sunday, July 31, by an American drone, while he was on the balcony of his house in Kabul, Afghanistan. Around the house, where he lived with his wife, daughter and grandchildren, the traces of a strike are minimal and no explosion seems to have occurred.

The drone attack was carried out using two Hellfire missiles and without any American military presence on the ground, said an American official quoted by AFP. Ayman al-Zawahiri had been spotted “repeatedly and for long periods of time on the balcony where he was finally hit” by the strike in the Afghan capital, he added.

The operation did not “no civilian casualties”said Joe Biden during his speech. “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you are hiding, if you pose a threat to our people, the United States will find you and eliminate you”hammered the American president.

He was one of the two masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks.

Born in 1951 into a bourgeois family, near Cairo (Egypt), Ayman al-Zawahiri, easily recognizable by his bump on the forehead and his large glasses, joined the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of 15. . Implicated in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anouar el-Sadat, he was imprisoned for three years before joining Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the mid-1980s, where he treated jihadists fighting the Soviets and met former terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.

It was only at the end of the 1990s that he joined Al-Qaeda, becoming Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, before succeeding him at the head of the terrorist organization in 2011, when the latter was killed by an American commando in Pakistan.

Ayman al-Zawahiri is considered one of the masterminds of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and at the Pentagon headquarters near Washington, which left nearly 3,000 dead in the States. -United. His death will allow the families of victims “to turn the page”said the Democratic president during his speech.

Inheriting an organization weakened after the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011, Ayman al-Zawahiri had to multiply the franchises of Al-Qaeda, from the Arabian Peninsula to the Maghreb, from Somalia to Afghanistan, Syria and in Iraq. “Zawahiri’s greatest success is keeping al-Qaeda alive”analyzes Barak Mendelsohn, professor at Haverford University in Pennsylvania, quoted by AFP.

He was located with his family in Kabul a few months ago

not found for more than ten years, Ayman al-Zawahiri was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world and the United States promised 25 million dollars for any information allowing to flush him out. VSIt was only a few months ago that American intelligence became aware of his whereabouts, details an American official quoted by AP (in English). The leader of Al-Qaeda was entrenched in a house serving as a cache in the Afghan capital, with his wife, daughter and grandchildren.

An intelligence mission was then organized at the highest level of the American administration for months to determine his way of life, to study the structure of the house and the risks of an operation for civilians. During this preparation, in May and June, only a handful of American officials were kept in confidence.

On July 1, an operation plan was presented to Joe Biden in the “Situation Room”, an ultra-secure room in the White House where, according to a photo that has become famous, Barack Obama was following the assault on Bin Laden live in 2011 with, at his side, Joe Biden, then vice-president. A model of the house was presented to the president. It was finally on July 25, when Joe Biden, positive for Covid-19, was subject to isolation, that he “authorized[é] a precise and tailor-made air strike” on the terrorist leader, reports a senior American official quoted by AFP.

The United States denounces a violation of the agreements with the Taliban

Ayman al-Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul is also a “clear breach” agreements concluded in Doha in 2020 with the Taliban, who had undertaken not to welcome Al-Qaeda on their soil, noted the senior American official quoted by AFP. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken added on Monday evening (in English) what about “housing and sheltering” the terrorist leader, the Taliban have “grossly violated the Doha agreement” which provided for the departure of American troops from Afghanistan.

In their press release, the Afghan Islamists also accused the United States of having derogated from these agreements, by conducting a strike on their territory. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahif said on Twitter that “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan condemns[ait] firmly this attack”calling this strike a “flagrant violation of the principles of the international Doha agreement”.


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