US President Joe Biden announced in an address to the nation that the death of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri by the US forces brings an end to the “trail of murder and violence against American citizens.”
The 71-year-old terrorist was the key architect of the 9/11 attack. He was killed in an air strike carried out by the Central Intelligences Agency (CIA) in Kabul over the weekend, Biden said.
“Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed in an air strike in Kabul. Justice has been delivered. No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the US will find you and take you out,” Biden said on Monday evening.
“People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer. The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm,” Biden added.
The fall of such a towering figure in the terrorist group is likely to bring greater disarray within the organization than Bin Laden’s death in 2011. Notably, no successor was announced till now.
Who is Ayman al-Zawahiri: An eye surgeon-turned-terrorist
Zawahiri was born in 1951 in Cairo, Egypt. His father is a prominent physician, and his grandfather is considered one of the renowned scholars. At a young age, Ayman became involved with Egypt’s radical Islamist community. Moreover, he was reportedly arrested at 15 for joining the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
He was jailed for three years in Egypt for militancy. Furthermore, he was also imprisoned for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat and the massacre of foreign tourists at Luxor in 1997.
By that time, Ayman became a young doctor, he was already a proscribed terrorist who conspired to oust the Egyptian government for years. He sought to replace it with fundamentalist Islamic rule.
His connections with Osama bin Laden
Zawahiri had left Egypt for Peshawar, Pakistan by 1985. There, he worked as a surgeon treating the fighters who were engaged with Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
It was reported that this is where Ayman met Osama Bin Laden. He was a prominent Mujahedeen leader at the time. The two bonded well, linked by their common bond as “Afghan Arabs.” He also acted as bin Laden’s personal physician.
Years later, both reunited in Afghanistan. It is equally important to note that it was in early 1998, bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri announced the formation of the World Islamic Front for the Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders. It formally merged the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda.
Together with bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, Ayman Zawahiri issued a “fatwa” in 1998 calling for attacks against Americans.
Ayman al-Zawahiri’s role in the 9/11 attacks
Ayman Zawahri is considered the architect of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people. The incident took place on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Both bin Laden and he escaped US forces in Afghanistan in late 2001. In May 2003, Zawahiri was found involved in suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 23 people.
After US forces killed bin Laden in 2011, Zawahiri became Al-Qaeda’s leader
He is credited for reshaping the organization from a centralized planner of terror attacks into the head of a franchise chain. He led the creation of a network of autonomous branches around the region, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, North Africa, Somalia, and Asia.
However, the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan dismantled al Qaeda’s safe haven. It killed its members. That is when Ayman ensured the terrorist organization’s survival. He rebuilt its leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions. He also became the movement’s public face, putting out a constant stream of video messages.
The last known public address by Ayman Zawahiri was an audio message released on July 13 by the media arm of al Qaeda.
