“Justice has been served and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden, who is in isolation after testing positive again for COVID-19, said in an afternoon speech from the balcony outside the White House Blue Room. “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.” Current and former officials began hearing on Sunday afternoon that al-Zawahri had been killed in a drone strike, but the administration delayed releasing the information until his death was confirmed, according to one person. Sounding somewhat hoarse and congested, Biden described al-Zawahri as bin Laden’s No. 2 man during the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The president said al-Zawahri was a “mastermind” deeply involved in 9/11, as well as the bombing of the battleship USS Cole and the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Biden spoke from the White House Blue Room Balcony, where he is in isolation with COVID-19. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP) The house al-Zawahri was in when he was killed in Kabul, where he was hiding with his family, belonged to a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground and aerial reconnaissance team conducted after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahri’s death. The US president approved the operation last week and it took place on Sunday.

Bin Laden’s MP formed al-Qaeda

al-Zawahri’s death eliminates the figure who shaped al-Qaeda more than anyone, first as bin Laden’s deputy from 1998 and then as his successor. Together, the two turned the weapons of the jihadist movement to target the United States, carrying out the 9/11 terrorist attacks — the deadliest ever on American soil. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon made bin Laden enemy No. 1 in the U.S., but he probably never would have been able to pull it off without his deputy, who brought the tactical and organizational skills needed to forge the fighters in a network of cores in countries around the world. The bond between the two was forged in the late 1980s, when al-Zawahri reportedly groomed the Saudi millionaire in the caves of Afghanistan as Soviet bombing shook the mountains around them. Al-Zawahri, on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list, had a $25 million reward on his head for any information that could be used to kill or capture him. Osama bin Laden, left, is shown with al-Zawahri in November 2001. Biden described al-Zawahri as bin Laden’s No. 2 and one of the “masterminds” of the 9/11 attack on the United States. (Hamid Mir/Daily Dawn/Reuters)

Al-Zawahri was a longtime associate of Bin Laden

Photos from the era of the 9/11 attacks often showed the bespectacled Egyptian doctor sitting at Bin Laden’s side. Al-Zawahri merged his group of Egyptian fighters with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda in the 1990s. Al-Zawahri speaks in this image taken from a video released in April 2006. He took over as al-Qaeda leader after bin Laden was killed in a US raid in 2011. (Reuters) “Egypt’s powerful section applied organizational expertise, financial know-how and military experience to launch a violent jihad against leaders the militants saw as un-Islamic and their patrons, especially the United States,” wrote Steven A. Cook for the Council on Foreign Relations last year. Speaking on August 31, 2021, after the last US troops left Afghanistan, Biden said the US would not abandon its fight against terrorism in that country or elsewhere. “We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries,” he said. “We just don’t have to go to ground war to do it.” Previewing the strike that would take place 11 months later, Biden said at the time: “We have what’s called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground — or very few, if necessary. “ WATCHES | US marks end of war in Afghanistan:

The US marks the end of the war in Afghanistan

US President Joe Biden signaled the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan by defending the decision to withdraw, as critics worry about a power vacuum that could allow other terrorist groups to take over. There had been rumors of al-Zawahri’s death for several years. But in April, a video emerged of the al-Qaeda leader praising an Indian Muslim woman who had defied a ban on wearing the hijab, or headscarf. This video was the first evidence in months that he was still alive. A statement from the Afghan Taliban government confirmed the airstrike but did not name al-Zawahri or other casualties. It said it “strongly condemns this attack and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” the 2020 US-Taliban agreement that led to the withdrawal of US forces. “Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan and the region,” the statement said. Al-Zawahri, left, and bin Laden, center, are seen in Afghanistan in May 1998. Sources told the AP on Monday that the drone strike in Afghanistan was carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency this weekend. (Getty Images)