KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri with a drone missile while he stood on a balcony at his home in downtown Kabul, officials in Washington claimed.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was accused of helping coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
U.S. officials said Zawahiri was killed when he came out on the balcony of his safe house in Kabul at 6:18 a.m. (0148 GMT) on Sunday morning and was hit by Hellfire missiles from a U.S. drone.
“Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in televised remarks from the White House on Monday.
Biden said he authorized the precision strike after months of planning and that no civilians or family members were killed.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that a strike took place in Kabul on Sunday and called it a violation of “international principles.”
A spokesperson for the interior ministry said a house was hit by a rocket in Sherpoor, a leafy, upscale residential neighborhood in the centre of the city.
“There were no casualties as the house was empty,” Abdul Nafi Takor, the spokesperson, said.
Taliban authorities threw a security dragnet around the house and journalists were not allowed nearby.
A woman who lives in the neighborhood said she and her family of nine moved to the safe room of their house when she heard an explosion at the weekend. When she later went to the rooftop, she saw no commotion or chaos and assumed it was a rocket or bomb attack - which is not uncommon in Kabul.
A senior Taliban official told Reuters that Zawahiri was previously in Helmand province and had moved to Kabul after the Taliban took over the country in August last year.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the United States did not have DNA confirmation of Zawahiri’s death. “We’re not going to get that confirmation,” he said on CNN,
describing “visual confirmation” along with other sources.
One senior administration official told reporters U.S. intelligence determined with “high confidence” that Zawahiri was killed.
After U.S. Navy SEALS allegedly shot Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, Zawahiri succeeded him as leader. The Egyptian had previously spent years as Al- Qaeda’s main organizer and strategist, but a lack of charisma, and competition from rival Daesh militants, hobbled his ability to inspire devastating attacks on the West.
The drone attack was reportedly the first known U.S. strike inside Afghanistan since U.S. troops and diplomats left the country.
Many Afghans expressed shock or doubt Tuesday at the news, saying they couldn’t believe Zawahiri had been hiding in their midst.
“It’s just propaganda,” Fahim Shah, 66, a resident of the Afghan capital, told AFP. “We have experienced such propaganda in the past and there was never anything in it.”
University student Mohammad Bilal was another who thought it unlikely Zawahiri had been living in Kabul.
“Leaders of most terrorist groups, including the Taliban, were either living in Pakistan or in the United Arab Emirates when they were in conflict with former Afghan forces,” he said.