Two decades after 9/11, bin Laden’s deputy killed by drone strike

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri worked with Osama bin Laden to plan the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other high profile attacks on  U.S. targets. The CIA operation is a significant counterterrorism win just 11 months after President Biden withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden announced Monday that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, an operation he said delivered justice and hopefully “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The president said in an evening address from the White House that U.S. intelligence officials tracked Mr. Zawahri 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. Mr. Zawahri and the better-known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of Al Qaeda. Mr. bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in operation carried out by U.S. Navy SEALs after a nearly decade-long hunt. Read more »