Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri killed in US operation

Highlights:

• President Joe Biden recently confirmed that, the United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahri, who was the leader of al-Qaeda. 
• He was killed in a drone strike and counter-terrorism operation led by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan. 
• He, along with Osama Bin laden, was the mastermind of 9/11 attacks and thus was among America’s most wanted terrorists.
• Al-Zawahiri had launched a trail of murder and violence against citizens in America.
• He was a 71-year-old Egyptian doctor, who took over al-Qaeda in 2011, after the death of Osama Bin Laden.
• He co-ordinated al-Qaeda’s branches across the world.
• He used to set priorities, to provide operational guidance and calling for attacks against US targets.
• His killing will bring closure to families of around 3,000 victims of 2001 attacks, in which hijackers had crashed passenger jets into buildings in New York and Washington. 
• Around 344 firefighters were also killed.

• CIA is informally an Agency and historically a Company. 
• It is a civilian foreign intelligence service in United States. 
• It is tasked to gather, process, and analyse national security information from worldwide, specifically by using human intelligence (HUMINT). 
• It is a principal member of United States Intelligence Community (IC) and responsible to the Director of National Intelligence. 
• It focuses on providing intelligence for the US President and Cabinet.