'Justice has been delivered': Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri killed in US drone strike
ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo reports on the significance of the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was one of America's most wanted terrorists
The leader of al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden announced in a televised address on Monday.
Al-Zawahiri plotted the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States with Osama bin Laden. He also carried out other attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Mr Biden said the operation delivered justice and hopefully "one more measure of closure" to families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
In an evening address from the White House, Mr Biden said that US intelligence officials had tracked al-Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was hiding out with his family.
The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday.
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Mr Biden said, “He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens.”
"Now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” he added. "People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer.
"You know, we make it clear again tonight that 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."
Joe Biden told reporters that the operation was a success, adding 'justice has been delivered'
The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war.
The strike was carried out by the CIA, according to five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Neither Mr Biden nor the White House detailed the CIA's involvement in the strike.
Mr Biden, however, paid tribute to the US intelligence community in his remarks, noting that “thanks to their extraordinary persistence and skill” the operation was a success.
Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri?
Americans who lived through the 9/11 attacks may not remember Al-Zawahiri's name, but many know his face.
He was pictured in photos shown throughout the US as a man in glasses, slightly smiling, sitting by the side of Bin Laden as the two arranged strikes on the US, more than two decades ago.
After the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan demolished al-Qaeda’s safe haven and scattered, killed and captured its members, Al-Zawahiri ensured al-Qaeda’s survival.
Within the Afghan-Pakistan border region he rebuilt the group’s leadership and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions.
He also reshaped the organisation from a centralised planner of terror attacks into the head of a franchise chain.
Al Zawahiri was a close associate of Bin Laden and the pair were seen together on a number of occasions.
Al-Zawahiri led the assembling of a network of autonomous branches around the region, including in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Somalia, Yemen and Asia.
During the next decade, al-Qaeda inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in all those areas as well as Europe, Pakistan and Turkey, including the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 underground bombings in London.
Following the death of Bin Laden, the White House underscored that Al-Zawahiri had continued to be a dangerous figure.
The senior administration official said Al-Zawahiri had continued to “provide strategic direction," including urging attacks on the US, while in hiding.
He had also prioritised to members of the terror network that the US remained al-Qaeda's “primary enemy”, the official said.
Al-Zawahiri, on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, had a $25 million (£20 million) bounty on his head for any information that could be used to kill or capture him.
How was he killed?
US intelligence officials have been aware for years of a network helping Al-Zawahiri dodge those hunting for him, but didn’t have a bead on his possible location until recent months.
However, officials learned this year that Al-Zawahiri's wife and other family members had moved to a safe house in Kabul recently, where they were swiftly joined by Al-Zawahiri himself.
Smoke was seen billowing from the house in Kabul, where Al-Zawahiri was believed to be in hiding, after the US drone strike was carried out.
At around sunrise last Sunday, Al-Zawahiri walked out on the balcony of the house and apparently lingered there, as US intelligence had noted he often did.
On this day, a US drone fired two Hellfire missiles at the al-Qaeda leader as he stood, according to US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the strike.
US officials, joined by top leaders all the way up to, eventually, Mr Biden, spent careful months confirming his identity - and his fateful practice of standing alone on that same balcony - before carrying out the strike.
What does his killing mean for al-Qaeda?
It depends on which al-Qaeda lieutenant succeeds him, which after decades of US and other strikes has left a small group to pick from.
Overall, the group now faces a succession crisis and shaky future. This is likely to include rivalries against aggressive upstart extremist groups, which came into being after 9/11 and also have a presence in Afghanistan.
Charles Lister, an expert in violent extremist networks, wrote after the killing that the nature and spread of conflicts around the Middle East, Africa and South Asia today favour locally focused jihadist organisations rather than globally focused ones.
Al-Qaeda's next leader will have to prove his relevance to “self-confident affiliates that have been more willing to push back against a central leadership perceived as detached from the realities of conflicts thousands of miles away,” Lister wrote.