Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda chief and the principal architect of 9/11?

Born in 1951, Zawahiri grew up in an upper-class neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a prominent physician and the grandson of renowned scholars.

His grandfather, Rabia al-Zawahiri, was an imam at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. His great-grandfather Abdel Rahman Azam was the first secretary of the Arab League.

Zawahiri was imprisoned in 1981 for his involvement in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

“We need to discuss to the entire world. Who are we? Who are we?” he said in a jailhouse interview.

By that time, Zawahiri, a young doctor, was already a committed terrorist, having spent years plotting to overthrow the Egyptian government and seeking to replace it with a radical Islamic regime. He proudly supported the assassination of Sadat after the Egyptian leader made peace with Israel.

What was his relationship with Osama bin Laden?

Zawahiri left Egypt in 1985 and made his way to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he worked as a surgeon treating fighters who were engaged with Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

It was here that Zawahiri met bin Laden, a prominent Mujahideen leader who had left behind a privileged upbringing to join the fighting in Afghanistan. The two became close, joined by their common bond as the “Afghan Arab”.

Following reunification in Afghanistan, bin Laden and Zawahiri appeared together in early 1998, announcing the formation of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders – formally a merger of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda.

At one point, he worked as bin Laden’s personal physician.

“We are working with Brother bin Laden,” he said in May 1998, announcing the merger of his terrorist group. “We’ve recognized him for over 10 years. We fought with him right here in Afghanistan.”

Together, the 2 terrorist leaders signed a fatwa, or declaration: “The choice to kill and struggle Americans and their allies, whether or not civilian or army, is an obligation for each Muslim.”

What was Zawahiri’s role in Al Qaeda’s attacks against America?

Attacks against the US and its facilities began shortly after bin Laden and Zawahiri’s edicts, with suicide bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing more than 200 and wounding more than 5,000.

Then, in October 2000, the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen, when suicide bombers on a canoe detonated her boat, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39 others.

Before and after the September 11 attacks, Zawahiri appeared on several videos and audiotapes calling for attacks against Western targets and urging Muslims to support their cause.

Some Egyptians traced Zawahiri’s anger towards the United States, which many Afghan Arabs felt was a betrayal of the CIA for supporting their cause after the Soviets left Afghanistan and the country slipped into tribal anarchy.

Others date to Zawahiri’s wrath in 1998, when US officials pushed for the extradition of several Islamic Jihad members from Albania to Egypt to stand trial for terrorism.

“We solely attempt to reclaim a few of our rights which were hijacked by Western powers all through historical past.”

When did Zawahiri start to guide Al Qaeda?

He continued to advance after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks. At one point, he narrowly escaped an American attack in the rugged, mountainous Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, an attack that killed his wife and children.

“According to the United Nations, they launched an unprecedented variety of movies. Every time you report a video, there is a chain of custody of that video, it is taken out of there, possibly somebody is taking the video.” ,” Bergen continued.

“So he was turning into extra outstanding. And, I suppose, I really feel like that may have been the rationale he received acknowledged.”

At a briefing by a panel of United Nations experts last week it was noted that Zawahiri’s apparently increased comfort and ability to communicate was the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the power of key al-Qaeda allies within his de facto administration. coincides with strengthening.

Zawahiri’s last known public address was an audio message released by al Qaeda’s media arm on 13 July.

How did America kill Zawahiri?

A senior administration told reporters on Monday that the US launched “a exact counter-terrorism operation” in Afghanistan targeting Zawahiri, who was taking refuge in a safe house in Kabul.

According to the official, “a exactly tailor-made air strike” utilizing two Hellfire missiles was performed at 9:48 a.m. ET on Saturday, July 30 – 6:18 a.m. Kabul time – through an unmanned air strike and its The latter was approved by Biden weeks later. Meetings together with his cupboard and key advisors.

No American personnel have been on the bottom in Kabul on the time of the strike.