Transcript by Yumna Moosa

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US President, Joe Biden, says a CIA drone strike has killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. This is said to have taken place on Sunday in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul. Journalist Arshad Yusufzai says, “it is believed that two blasts were heard in the early morning in a location called Wazir Akbar Khan.”

There was no initial confirmation on the target of the attack, but the Afghan Taliban had stated later that the blast was as a result of a rocket attack on an empty house. However they later changed their claim and revealed that this was due to a drone attack that had violated Afghan airspace.

Yusufzai says that “Dr al-Zawahiri, during the past few years, was a ceremonial name and head of Al Qaeda because after the killing of Osama bin Laden the group was effectively inactive in Afghanistan”. He also states that they [Al Qaeda] had no active role in the war in Afghanistan, but al-Zawahiri continued sharing his messages and ideas to his followers across the world.

There has been no reaction from the Taliban following the news of the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri.

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