US kills al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in drone strike in Afghanistan

The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, President Joe Biden said Monday in a speech from the White House.

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"I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all," Biden said.

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Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden.

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Zawahiri was sheltering in downtown Kabul to reunite with his family, Biden said, and was killed in what a senior administration official described as "a precise tailored airstrike" using two Hellfire missiles.

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Senior Haqqani Taliban figures were aware of Zawahiri's presence in the area, the official said, in "clear violation of the Doha agreement,

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Issued by FBI

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Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, "An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31."

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Biden said that no one else was hurt in the strike, including al-Zawahiri's family, who were elsewhere in a safehouse, and there were no civilian casualties.

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