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Top Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, said to have been killed by US strike

WASHINGTON – The United States killed the top leader of Al Qaeda, the main mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, in a drone strike over the weekend in Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials. Current and previous periods.

Ayman al-Zawahri, who took the helm of the group after the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden, was killed in the attack in Kabul, the first in Afghanistan since US forces left last year, and is a major victory for the Biden administration’s counterterrorism efforts.

Mr. Zawahri was No. 2 in Al Qaeda on September 11, and US officials see him as the central mastermind of the attacks. While lacking bin Laden’s charismatic leadership, he deeply shaped Al Qaeda and its terrorist movements with his writing and arguments.

US officials said the attack was not carried out by the military. A former official who said the operation was carried out by CIA officials declined to comment.

A senior administration official said the operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties. A second administration official said the White House is expected to meet with reporters Monday night.

“The attack that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri was a major success in the US counterterrorism effort. The result of countless hours of intelligence gathering over many years,” said Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer and senior Pentagon official. “He may believe we will never be able to track him down. But he was wrong.”

Mr. Zawahri has avoided Afghanistan for many years. His return to Kabul with the Taliban takeover raises questions about the group’s commitment to stopping Al Qaeda abroad.

After the Afghan government fell to the Taliban, the CIA began a covert effort to redouble efforts to find Mr. Zawahri, guessing that the Taliban’s return to power would catch him off-guard, according to one person briefed about this effort. .

One statement from the Taliban condemned the operation and said the attack was carried out on a residential house in the Sherpur area of ​​Kabul, an affluent downtown neighborhood frequented by Taliban government officials. . An investigation by the Taliban authorities concluded that the attack was carried out by a US drone, the statement said, although it did not provide evidence to support the claims.

Taliban officials believe the Doha agreement – which sets out the terms for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan – prohibits US attacks, something US officials dispute. Residents in Kabul blamed Pakistan for possibly helping carry out the strike.

According to an American analyst, the attacked house is owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government who US officials say is close to senior figures. of Qaeda.

The analyst said images of the attack posted on social media showed an attack by the RX9, a hellfire missile equipped with long blades that destroy the target with kinetic energy to minimize damage. great harm.

In the months since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, US military and diplomatic officials have discussed with allies where to place US forces to strike high-value targets in Afghanistan. This so-called horizon strategy is still in its infancy, and negotiations over the deployment of forces in neighboring Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have progressed slowly.

As the United States was evacuating people from Afghanistan, a drone attack based on bad news in Kabul killed 10 civilians. The United States did not admit the fault at first, only to do so later Report of The New York Times. Since then, the Pentagon and the Biden administration have taken more precautions to prevent civilian casualties during strikes.

Even without bases nearby, the United States has plenty of room to send drones as well as manned strike aircraft within striking distances of Afghanistan, from land bases along the way. The Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and even the United States.

Three US officials reached on Monday said that the attacks were not carried out by the Department of Defense or by US Central Command, the operations commander responsible for Afghanistan, leaving open the possibility that the attack performed by CIAJ Todd Breasseale, actor. Pentagon press secretary, declined to comment on the strike.

The US government is currently reviewing its policy on drone strikes against terrorist targets. While the military typically conducts attacks in established war zones, the CIA conducts operations in areas where the United States wants a measure of secrecy about its actions.

Since the Taliban government opposes any drone attack on its territory, the US may have preferred to use the CIA to conduct this operation.

While the CIA has drones of its own, it will also use military drones, with the authority to carry out attacks assigned to the agency when the drones enter the airspace the plane is in. of the Ministry of Defense are not allowed to operate.

Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting from Kabul.

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