Taliban say they've not found body of al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahri

Taliban say they've not found body of al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahri
August 25, 2022, 10:49 am

Ayman al-Zawahiri

The Taliban have not found the body of Ayman al-Zawahri and are continuing investigations, group spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Thursday, after the US said it killed the al-Qaeda leader in an airstrike in Kabul last month.

The US killed al-Zawahri with a missile fired from a drone while he stood on a balcony at his hideout in July, US officials said, in the biggest blow to al-Qaeda since US Navy SEALS shot dead Osama bin Laden more than a decade ago.

Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri was an Egyptian-born terrorist, ideologist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death.

Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a degree in medicine and a master's degree in surgery and was a surgeon by profession.

The Taliban have not found the body of Ayman al-Zawahri and are continuing investigations

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced in a speech from the White House, United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike.

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

Taliban say investigating US claim of killing Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri

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.

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.

levantnews-agencies

France's Macron heads to Algeria in bid to heal colonial-era wounds Lebanon investigates recorded death threats against Saudi embassy