Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri killed in US drone strike: Biden | Military News

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US President Joe Biden says ‘justice has been delivered’ after Al Qaeda leader located in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan, United States President Joe Biden has said.

Al-Zawahiri was killed over the weekend in the biggest blow to the group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a special address from the White House.

Intelligence had located Al-Zawahiri’s family in Kabul, earlier this year, Biden said, and stressed that no civilians or members of Al-Zawahiri’s family had been killed.

An Egyptian surgeon with a $25m reward on his head, al-Zawahiri helped coordinate the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Earlier US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the CIA carried out a drone attack in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, using two missiles.

Al Zawahiri was on his balcony at the time, they said.

“Over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant al Qaeda target in Afghanistan,” a senior administration official said in a statement to reporters. “The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties,” the official added.

The Taliban confirmed there was an attack in Kabul, and condemned it as a “violation of international principles”.