Ayman al-Zawahiri – Al Queda leader killed by the US

Ayman al-Zawahiri - Al Queda leader killed by the US

Ayman al-Zawahiri was frequently referred to as the Chief Ideologue of al-Qaeda and was recently killed in an American drone strike in Afghanistan. After US forces killed Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, the leadership of al-Qaeda was taken over by eye surgeon Ayman al-Zawahiri, who also assisted in founding the militant Egyptian Islamic Islamic Jihad organization. Before that, Ayman al-Zawahiri was regarded as Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man and, in the opinion of some experts, was the architect behind the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.

A $25 million bounty was placed on the head of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was listed as the second most wanted terrorist by the US Government in 2001, just after Osama Bin Laden.

In the years following the bombings, Ayman al-Zawahiri became Al-Qaeda’s most well-known spokesperson. In 2007, he appeared in 16 videos and audiotapes that the organization used to radicalize and recruit Muslims worldwide.

Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri?

From June 2011 until his passing in July 2022, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born physician and theologian, served as the leader of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. After Osama Bin Laden’s death, Ayman al-Zawahiri took over. Before that, he was a key member of Islamist groups that organized attacks in Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe. In 2012, Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Muslims to kidnap Westerners in Muslim nations. 

The US government offered a $25 million reward after the September 11 attacks for any information or intelligence that resulted in Ayman al-Zawahiri’s capture.  In 1999, the UN’s Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee designated him as an Al-Qaeda member and imposed international sanctions on him.

Ayman al-Zawahiri Radical Youth

By establishing a medical center in a Cairo suburb, Ayman al-Zawahiri carried on the family tradition. However, he soon became drawn to the extreme Islamist groups that were advocating the destruction of the Egyptian government. Ayman al-Zawahiri joined the 1973-founded Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Following the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat by several members of the group dressed as soldiers, Ayman al-Zawahiri was arrested among hundreds of other suspected members of the organization.

By signing a peace agreement with Israel, he had angered Islamist activists.

Despite being acquitted of involvement in Sadat’s murder, Ayman al-Zawahiri was found guilty of illegally possessing weapons and sentenced to three years in prison.

Ayman al-Zawahiri departed for Saudi Arabia after being released in 1985. Then, while serving as a doctor there during the Soviet Occupation, he was on his way to Peshawar in Pakistan and eventually to neighboring Afghanistan, where he founded a group of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Ayman al-Zawahiri: Leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad

After the Egyptian Islamic Jihad reappeared in 1993, Ayman al-Zawahiri assumed control of the organization. He was a significant player in the group’s attacks on the Prime Minister and other ministries of the Egyptian government.

More than 1,200 Egyptians lost their lives as a result of the radical groups’ campaign to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic State in the nation in the middle of the 1990s.

He was recognized as the organization’s leader by the US State Department in 1997. Ayman al-Zawahiri was given a death sentence in absentia by an Egyptian military court two years later for his role in the numerous attacks carried out by the organization.

Ayman al-Zawahiri death

The US Government carried out a drone strike in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul that resulted in the death of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In a televised speech, US President Joe Biden expressed his hope that Zawahiri’s death may provide comfort to the families of the 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11. The action that was carried out over the weekend resulted in no casualties, the President further said.

According to US officials, two Hellfire missiles were launched at Ayman al-Zawahiri on July 31, 2022, as he was standing on the balcony of his Kabul residence. The building appears to have had windows blown out on one floor in the supposed images, but the remaining of the house looked entirely undamaged.

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