U.S. kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri

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The United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda and one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists, who oversaw the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, alongside the group’s founder, Osama bin Laden, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Both men escaped U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late 2001, and Zawahiri’s whereabouts had long been a mystery. Bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011.

The Associated Press first reported that Zawahiri was killed.

It was not immediately clear where and when Zawahiri died and what element of the U.S. government had carried out the mission.

The CIA carried out a drone strike over the weekend in Kabul, according to officials familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for the Taliban wrote in a tweet that an airstrike had been carried out “on a residential house” in the capital city.

The White House said on Monday that President Biden would give remarks in the evening about “a successful counterterrorism operation,” but did not mention Zawahiri.

This is a developing story and will be updated. Ellen Nakashima and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.

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