Updated August 1, 2022 at 6:52 PM ET
Top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed by a drone strike carried out by the U.S. on July 30, according to President Joe Biden.
At Biden's direction, an unmanned U.S drone fired two hellfire missiles at a safehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing al-Zawahiri at 9:48 p.m. ET, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on Monday.
The official said through various intelligence sources, the U.S. has "high confidence" that no one else was killed in the strike, including al-Zawahiri's family who were elsewhere in a safehouse.
The official said al-Zawahiri was an active threat to U.S. national security and that his death is a "hugely significant blow" to al-Qaida.
For several years the U.S. was aware of a network that protected al-Zawahiri, according to the official.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian eye doctor, had served as Osama bin Laden's deputy and took over al-Qaida after the U.S. killed bin Laden in May 2011. But al-Qaida members had complained that he was comparatively uninspiring. The two men fought had together in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Zawahiri helped found Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Al-Qaida was never able to regain its status as the pre-eminent terrorist organization after bin Laden's death, and faced newer, more brutal, rivals, such as the Islamic State.
On July 1, Biden was briefed on a proposed operation, and he convened a meeting on July 25 with key cabinet members and top officials for a final briefing on the intelligence assessment, the official said. There was unanimous support to strike the target and Biden authorized a "tailored" airstrike to minimize civilian casualties.
This story will be updated.
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