Who was Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri - Killed in U.S. Drone Strike

Who was Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and why does his death matter?

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Called a mastermind of theSept. 11, 2001, attacks, the leader of Al Qaeda Ayman al- Zawahiri has been one of the most sought- after people by theU.S. for over two decades. 

 

The Egyptian- born al- Zawahiri, a trained surgeon, was Osama bin Laden'sNo. 2 and took over Al Qaeda after bin Laden was killed in aU.S. raid in 2011. 

He played a pivotal part in the planning of theSept. 11 attacks; he was criminated in absentia for the 1998 bombings ofU.S. delegacies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people; and he's believed to have colluded the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 mariners. 

Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri Killed 

The FBI listed him as one of its utmost wanted terrorist in the world, and a$ 25 million price was offered for information. 

On Saturday al- Zawahiri, 71, was killed in aU.S. airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, President Joe Biden announced Monday. 

 

“ Now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more, ” Biden said. 

Al- Zawahiri was born to a politically connected family in Cairo and got degrees in drug and surgery before joining the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1979. 

Photos third party reference

 

He came to international attention in 1981 when he was charged in a plot to bump off Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He indicted guards of torture and was doomed to three years in prison. 

After he was released in 1984, he went to Afghanistan as the fight against the Soviet Union was at its height, and also Pakistan, where he met bin Laden. 

 

In 1998 al- Zawahiri intermingled his Islamic Jihad with bin Laden's Al Qaeda, getting bin Laden’s deputy and principal Islamic ideologist. That same year, bin Laden, al- Zawahiri and others issued a protestation in which they called for Americans to be killed each over the world. 

U.S. drone strike kills Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan

Biden said al- Zawahiri “ carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests. ” 

Photos third party reference

But Zawahiri’s violence wasn't limited to Americans. He was a leading figure in a crusade to erect Egypt’s government in the 1990s that left more than,200 Egyptians dead, Reuters reported. 

The group tried to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995 but failed. But it bombed Egypt’s delegacy in Islamabad, Pakistan, that time, killing 16 people as well as the two bombers. 

 

“ This is an individual, Zawahiri, who has been involved in terrorist conditioning for the once 40 years, ” John Brennan, former CIA director, said Monday on MSNBC where he's an critic.