Biden says U.S. killed al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri in drone strike

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US President Joe Biden speaks on a 'successful' counterterrorism operation that killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, from the Blue Room balcony of the White House in Washington, DC on Aug 1, 2022. - (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Joe Biden announced Monday evening that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had been killed in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan.

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"I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield," Biden said in live remarks from the Blue Room Balcony at the White House.

"There were no civilian casualties." Al-Zawahiri became head of al-Qaeda in 2011 after its longtime leader, Osama bin Laden, was shot and killed by U.S. forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan during a raid.

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Biden's announcement came nearly a year after the U.S. military completed a withdrawal from Afghanistan that it invaded in response to the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks carried out by al-Qaeda operatives against targets on American soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people. - XINHUA

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