Al-Qaeda leader killed in US drone strike

WASHINGTON (AP):

President Joe Biden expressed hope on Monday that the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri brings “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Biden made the comments as he confirmed that a US drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed al-Zawahri. It delivers a significant counterterrorism win just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war.

“He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens,” Biden said in an address from the White House formally announcing the operation.

“This terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said.

He said US intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday.

Al-Zawahri’s killing eliminates the figure who more than anyone shaped al-Qaeda, first as Osama bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor. Together, he and bin Laden turned the jihadi movement’s guns to target the United States, carrying out the deadliest attack ever on American soil – the 9/11 suicide hijackings.