Ayman al-Zawahiri had succeeded as the leader of the global terror group Al Qaeda after former US President Barack Obama killed the dreaded Osama bin Laden in a planned attack in Abbottabad in 2011.
Al-Zawahiri, who was killed in a US drone strike by the CIA in Kabul on Sunday, was bin Laden’s top deputy before taking command of the group. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed and condemned the attack on Twitter, calling it a “clear violation of international principles”.
However, the 2020 Doha Agreement, which was heavily criticized by the US President Joe Biden administration last year for US troops from Afghanistan, called on the Taliban to combat terrorism within the country.
A US official told the media that on July 31, while Zawahiri was standing in the balcony of his house, two Hellfire missiles were fired from a drone. Photos of that house show that the windows of one floor were broken but the rest of the house was in good condition. The official said Zawahiri’s family members were also in the house at the time of the attack but “they were not deliberately targeted and no harm was caused to them.” “We have not found any indication that any civilian was harmed in this attack,” the official said.
According to media reports, before the attack, the authorities had prepared a detailed model of the house. That model was also shown to the US President at the White House. Officials were aware that al-Zawahiri liked to sit on the balcony. Officials said that they had worked very hard to create a micro model, which was the result of months of efforts.
American spies have taken years to reach the preparation of this map. During this four presidents of the country changed. Al Zawahiri’s family got the house in Kabul with the help of a faction, the Haqqani network, after the Taliban took over Afghanistan last year.
When US spies found out where al-Zawahiri was living, it was only the first step in the series. It required a very detailed plan to be in the right place at the time of the attack and to attack in such a crowded area to save the lives of the common people. It took the officials months to make this plan.
Al-Zawahiri, founder of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad terrorist group
According to intelligence sources, al-Zawahiri was also a doctor and the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terror group, which later merged with Al Qaeda.
According to the State Department, the 71-year-old was listed as one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and had a $25 million reward for his capture. The Egyptian-born terrorist helped plot the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and is wanted in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, as well as the 2000 attack on the USS Kol in Yemen.
He publicly urged terrorists to attack the US and Western allies and kidnap civilians. The embassy bombings killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured more than 4,500.
Al-Zawahiri was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth
17 American sailors were killed in the attack on the USS Cole. Other perpetrators of the attacks, including bin Laden and Muhammad Atef, have already been killed.
Seven other suspects in the embassy bombings are serving life sentences in US prisons. In his youth, al-Zawahiri was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, according to the State Department. He went to medical school and became an eye surgeon before joining forces with bin Laden in the mid-1980s. They became close during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
According to documents seized on bin Laden’s campus in Abbottabad, al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University in 1974.
Ideologically he was an opponent of secular governments and was arrested in 1981 for possessing unlicensed arms after the assassination of former Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar al-Saadat.
Most recently, it denounced the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) for its brutality in Iraq and Syria. Another al-Qaeda leader, Saif al-Adel, remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list in connection with the bombings at the embassy. Al-Zawahiri was also the father-in-law of another senior al-Qaeda leader, Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi.