The Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) on Saturday was able to assassinate the leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri, who served as Osama Bin Laden’s deputy and was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks that left hundreds of Americans dead.
US president Joe Biden announced the news on Monday evening saying that justice had finally been delivered, thus ending the two-decade hunt for the terrorist.
“Now, justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more. We made it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out,” Biden said.
According to reports, Al-Zawahiri, 71, was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his Taliban safe house in Kabul, in a mission that took six months to plan.
“He was killed by “‘Ninja’ missiles – fitted with extending blades fired from CIA drones as he stood on the balcony of his safe house in a wealthy area of downtown Kabul this weekend in a mission that took six months to plan,” read a report by the Daily Mail UK.
Al-Zawahiri was staying in the safe house with his wife, daughter and grandchildren but none of them was hurt during the incident.
His death comes just a decade after his boss Osama was killed. Osama was killed on May 2, 2011 by US Navy SEALS in Pakistan. The operation was led by the CIA.
Al-Zawahiri was however born in Cairo, Egypt in a family that was well connected politically. He got arrested at the age of 15 years for joining the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. He later got degrees in medicine and surgery before proceeding to join Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1979.
He came to get international attention in 1981, when he was charged with a plot to eliminate Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He was handed a 3-year jail sentence after which he left for Afghanistan “as the fight against the Soviet Union was at its height, and then Pakistan, where he met bin Laden.”
In 1998, his Islamic Jihad was merged with Osama’s Al-Qaeda and he became Osama’s deputy and chief Islamic ideologist. That same year, they targeted Americans across the world.
Aside from the September 11 attacks, that saw the bombing of iconic American building with passenger planes, he was was also involved with the 1998 attacks that saw the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania leaving 224 people dead, as well as the 2000Â USS Cole that killed 17 sailors.
In the 1990s, Al-Zawahiri and his men sought to overthrow the Egyptian government 1,200 Egyptians dead. In 1995, they tried to assassinate the country’s president Hosni Mubarak while in Ethiopia but the attempt was unsuccessful.
He took over the leadership of Al-Qaeda after Osama’s death.
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