According to Vice President Joe Biden, the United States carried out a drone operation on July 30 that killed top al-Qaida leader and key 9/11 plotter Ayman al-Zawahiri.
“For decades he was the mastermind behind assaults against Americans,” Biden said on August 1, also highlighting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole and the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Biden added.
Joe Biden outlined al-leadership Zawahiri’s of al-Qaeda since the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011, including recent calls for attacks on the United States and its allies by al-followers Zawahiri’s in video messages.
Vice President Joe Biden declared: “We make it clear again tonight that the United States will discover and take you out no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide.”
There were no civilian casualties, according to Biden, and no one else was harmed in the attack, including al-family, Zawahiri’s who were also in a safehouse at the time.
Al-death Zawahiri’s is a “hugely significant blow” to al-Qaida, according to an administration official who briefed media ahead of Biden’s speech.
We will always be watchful, we will act, and we will always do what is necessary to preserve the safety and security of Americans here at home and around the world,” Biden added.
According to the senior administration official, the U.S. has been aware of al-network Zawahiri’s for some years.
The individual added that after receiving a final briefing on the intelligence assessment, Vice President Biden met with cabinet members and other senior officials on July 25 to discuss the proposed operation. Biden gave the go-ahead for a “tailored” airstrike in order to avoid harming civilians in the process.
When Zawahiri, an Egyptian eye doctor, took over al-Qaeda in 2011, he was bin Laden’s right-hand man. He has been criticized by al-Qaeda members for being uninspiring. In Afghanistan, the two guys battled together against the Soviets.
Anwar Sadat’s assassination was the work of Zawahiri’s Islamic Jihad, a group he helped form. As a result, al-Qaida was unable to reclaim its position as the world’s most powerful terrorist group following the murder of Osama bin Laden.