US takes out Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in ‘successful’ Afghanistan counterterrorism operation

Two intelligence sources say Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri was killed in a CIA drone strike

The United States conducted a “successful” counterterrorism operation against a “significant” Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in Afghanistan over the weekend, a senior administration official told Fox News.

President Biden on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. E.T. is expected to address the nation from the White House on the operation.

“Over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan,” the senior administration official told Fox News Monday. “The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties.”

Two intelligence sources tell Fox News Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri was killed in the CIA drone strike.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, last September, warned lawmakers that terror groups like Al Qaeda may be able to grow much faster following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, at the time, said that the focus of continued U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan would be countering terrorist threats, not the Taliban. Austin said the U.S. would “keep an eye on” Al Qaeda, the extremist network whose use of Afghanistan as a haven for planning the 9/11 attacks on the United States was the reason U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

Ayman Al Zawahiri appeared in a video last year commemorating 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks despite rumors that he died months earlier.

Al Zawahiri was appointed the successor to Usama bin Laden in June 2011, a month after the terrorist leader was shot and killed by U.S. forces at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.