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US President Joe Biden says ‘justice has been delivered’ after al-Qaeda chief positioned and killed in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, United States President Joe Biden has stated.
Al-Zawahiri was killed on Sunday within the largest blow to the group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.
“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist chief is not any extra,” Biden stated in a particular televised handle from outdoors the White Home.
Intelligence had positioned al-Zawahiri’s household in Kabul earlier this 12 months, Biden stated, including that no family members or civilians had been killed within the assault.
An Egyptian surgeon with a $25m reward on his head, al-Zawahiri helped coordinate the September 11, 2001 assaults on the US that killed almost 3,000 individuals.
Earlier, US officers talking on the situation of anonymity instructed reporters earlier that the CIA carried out a drone assault in Kabul utilizing two missiles.
Al-Zawahiri was on his balcony on the time, they stated.
Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera’s Ali Latifi stated the drone strike had reportedly taken place on a home that belonged to a Taliban chief.
“This can be a extremely residential space of Kabul. It’s close to a grocery retailer, close to a financial institution, and a foremost road. It’s an space the place earlier warfare lords, governors and ministers have lived below the earlier authorities. It’s not wherever hidden.
“That raises the query of how the present chief of al-Qaeda may stroll into Kabul with out the federal government understanding and that’s what Joe Biden is alluding to when he says that is in violation of the Doha settlement.
Latifi defined that now each the US and the Taliban have been exchanging accusations in regards to the different violating the Doha settlement.
“It’s a major blow,” Colin Clarke, analysis director on the Soufan Group, a world safety agency, instructed Al Jazeera, including that his presence in Kabul was additionally attention-grabbing in what it urged about his relationship with the Taliban.
“It tells us he’s gotten way more snug over the previous years because the Taliban took over,” Clarke stated.
The Taliban confirmed the assault in Kabul, and condemned it as a “violation of worldwide ideas”.
In an announcement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated al-Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul “grossly violated the Doha Settlement and repeated assurances to the world that they might not enable Afghan territory for use by terrorists to threaten the safety of different nations”.
Washington and the Taliban signed the deal in 2020 paving the way in which for the withdrawal of US-led overseas forces in return for a assure from the Taliban to not enable teams corresponding to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) to function on Afghan soil. The US forces withdrew simply earlier than an August 31 deadline in what turned out to be a chaotic train.
Blinken stated that by permitting al Qaeda shelter in Afghanistan, the Taliban had additionally “betrayed” the Afghan individuals and “their very own acknowledged want for recognition from and normalization with the worldwide group”.
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