Washington ∙ US President Joe Biden said that Ayman al-Zawahiri (71), the head of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda and the perpetrator of the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, was killed in a drone attack.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head, helped coordinate Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
71 years old, Zawahiri had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as Bin Laden's personal physician.
US intelligence officials tracked Al Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out Sunday.
U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Zawahiri was killed when he came out on the balcony of his safe house in Kabul on Sunday morning and was hit by "hellfire" missiles from a U.S. drone. He said he had authorized the precision strike in downtown Kabul and that no civilians were killed.
The operation is a significant counter terrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war.