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The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, President Joe Biden said Monday in a speech from the White House.

"I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all," Biden said.

Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden's personal physician.

Zawahiri was sheltering in downtown Kabul to reunite with his family, Biden said, and was killed in what a senior administration official described as "a precise tailored airstrike" using two Hellfire missiles. The drone strike was conducted at 9:48 p.m. ET on Saturday was authorized by Biden following weeks of meetings with his Cabinet and key advisers, the official said on Monday, adding that no American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time of the strike.

Senior Haqqani Taliban figures were aware of Zawahiri's presence in the area, the official said, in "clear violation of the Doha agreement," and even took steps to conceal his presence after Saturday's successful strike, restricting access to the safe house and rapidly relocating members of his family, including his daughter and her children, who were intentionally not targeted during the strike and remained unharmed. The US did not alert Taliban officials ahead of Saturday's strike.

In a series of tweets, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, "An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31."

He said, "The nature of the incident was not apparent at first" but the security and intelligence services of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and "initial findings determined that the strike was carried out by an American drone."

The tweets by Mujahid came out prior to CNN reporting Zawahiri's death. Mujahid said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan "strongly condemns this attack on any pretext and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement."

'JUSTICE HAS BEEN DELIVERED'

Biden, who was kept abreast of the strike against Zawahiri as he isolated with a rebound case of COVID-19, spoke outdoors Monday from the Blue Room Balcony at the White House.

Zawahiri, Biden said, "was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil. For decades, he was the mastermind of attacks against Americans."

"Now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more. People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer," he continued. "The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm. We make it clear again tonight, that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out."

The President said the precision strike targeting was the result of the "extraordinary persistence and skill" of the nation's intelligence community.

"Our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year -- he moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family," Biden said.

The strike comes one year after Biden ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, prompting Taliban forces to rapidly seize control of the nation.

Biden said on Monday that when he withdrew US troops from the country, he "made the decision that after 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who seek to do us harm, and I made a promise to the American people, that we continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We've done just that."

Biden pledged that Zawahiri "will never again allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven, because he is gone and we're going to make sure that nothing else happens."

The President concluded by expressing gratitude to US intelligence and counterterrorism communities, saying that he hopes Zawahiri's death will bring some measure of closure to the friends and families of 9/11 victims.

"To those who continue to seek to harm the United States, hear me now: We will always remain vigilant and we will act -- and we will always do what is necessary to ensure the safety and security of Americans at home and around the globe," he concluded.

EMBARRASSMENT FOR TALIBAN

A senior counterterrorism analyst told CNN that it would have been impossible for Zawahiri to be in Kabul without the invitation and acquiescence of at least a small number of Taliban, whether from the Haqqani network or another part of the group.

The analyst said that this strike was embarrassing for the Taliban as they had claimed there were no foreign fighters in Afghanistan and no al Qaeda.

He added that recent statements from Zawahiri had suggested the al Qaeda leader was feeling more relaxed. The statements had referred to more recent events, the analyst said, adding this potentially revealed a complacency that may have led to the successful strike.

The issue now arises as to who will be Zawahiri's successor.

The current al Qaeda No. 2, Saif al Adel, is thought to have been in Iran, according to United Nations reports.

The analyst said that this raised an urgent issue for the Iranians who now have to choose between expelling the new al Qaeda leader or harboring him.

A former official in the Afghan government with an intimate grasp of counterterrorism said that he had heard al Adel had already left Iran for Afghanistan.

CLOSE ALLY OF BIN LADEN

Zawahiri comes from a distinguished Egyptian family, according to the New York Times. His grandfather, Rabia'a al-Zawahiri, was an imam at al-Azhar University in Cairo. His great-uncle, Abdel Rahman Azzam, was the first secretary of the Arab League.

He eventually helped to mastermind the deadliest terror attack on American soil, when hijackers turned US airliners into missiles.

"Those 19 brothers who went out and gave their souls to Allah almighty, God almighty has granted them this victory we are enjoying now," al-Zawahiri said in a videotaped message released in April 2002.

It was the first of many taunting messages the terrorist -- who became al Qaeda's leader after US forces killed bin Laden in 2011 -- would send out over the years, urging militants to continue the fight against America and chiding US leaders.

Zawahiri was constantly on the move once the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began after the September 11, 2001, attacks. At one point, he narrowly escaped a US onslaught in the rugged, mountainous Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, an attack that left his wife and children dead.

He made his public debut as a Muslim militant when he was in prison for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

"We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we? Who are we?" he said in a jailhouse interview.

By that time, al-Zawahiri, a young doctor, was already a committed terrorist who conspired to overthrow the Egyptian government for years and sought to replace it with fundamentalist Islamic rule. He proudly endorsed Sadat's assassination after the Egyptian leader made peace with Israel.

He spent three years in prison after Sadat's assassination and claimed he was tortured while in detention. After his release, he made his way to Pakistan, where he treated wounded mujahadeen fighters who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

That was when he met bin Laden and found a common cause.

"We are working with brother bin Laden," he said in announcing the merger of his terror group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, with al Qaeda in May 1998. "We know him since more than 10 years now. We fought with him here in Afghanistan."

Together, the two terror leaders signed a fatwa, or declaration: "The judgment to kill and fight Americans and their allies, whether civilians or military, is an obligation for every Muslim."

MASTERMIND OF 9/11

The attacks against the US and its facilities began weeks later, with the suicide bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 5,000 others. Zawahiri and bin Laden gloated after they escaped a US cruise missile attack in Afghanistan that had been launched in retaliation.

Then, there was the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, when suicide bombers on a dinghy detonated their boat, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 others.

The culmination of Zawahiri's terror plotting came on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A fourth hijacked airliner, headed for Washington, crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.

Since then, al-Zawahiri raised his public profile, appearing on numerous video and audiotapes to urge Muslims to join the jihad against the United States and its allies. Some of his tapes were followed closely by terrorist attacks.

In May 2003, for instance, almost simultaneous suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 23 people, including nine Americans, days after a tape thought to contain Zawahiri's voice was released.

The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to his capture. A June 2021 United Nations report suggested he was located somewhere in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that he may have been too frail to be featured in propaganda.

9/11 FAMILIES GROUP EXPRESSES GRATITUDE BUT CALLS ON BIDEN TO HOLD SAUDIS ACCOUNTABLE

Terry Strada, the chair of 9/11 Families United -- a coalition of survivors and families of victims of the September, 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- expressed gratitude for the strike, but called on the President to hold the Saudi Arabian government accountable for alleged government complicity in the attacks.

The group has criticized the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, which began its third competition at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster at the end of July -- some 50 miles from Ground Zero in Manhattan.

"I am deeply grateful for the commitment of intelligence agencies and our brave military's dedication and sacrifices made in removing such evil from our lives. But, in order to achieve full accountability for the murder of thousands on Sept. 11, 2001, President Biden must also hold responsible the Saudi paymasters who bankrolled the Attacks," Strada said in a statement.

"The financiers are not being targeted by drones, they are being met with fist pumps and hosted at golf clubs. If we're going to be serious about accountability, we must hold EVERYONE accountable," Strada added -- appearing to reference the President's controversial gesture with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Within the same week that:

Donald Trump brought his bloated bling back to Bedminster, New Jersey, last weekend, under the 24/7 protection of the taxpayer funded U.S. Secret Service.

The occasion was the Trump National Golf Club hosting the first East Coast tournament of LIV Golf, the controversial series funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed, better known around the world as MBS, was identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as behind the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and opinion columnist with the Washington Post. MBS is also responsible for initiating and prosecuting a brutal war in Yemen, which has festered into what UNICEF describes as "one of the world's largest humanitarian crises."

The LIV tournament sparked a protest at the Somerset County course from a contingent of 9/11 victims' families who have been locked in prolonged litigation against the Saudi government, alleging that the desert kingdom provided material support to the 19 hijackers — 15 of them from Saudi Arabia — who were responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people that day. Osama bin Laden, then the leader of al-Qaida, was the the son of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest oligarchs.

Family members of those who died on 9/11 have blasted the former president as well as the superstar golfers who are reportedly pocketing six-figure fees for participating in the Saudi-financed event. Trump downplayed those concerns.

"I have known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia and they have been friends of mine for a long time," Trump told an NBC TV crew last week. "Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have as to those maniacs who did that horrible thing to our city, to our country, to the world. So nobody has really been there, so I can tell you there are a lot of great people who are out here today and we are going to have a lot of fun. We are going to celebrate."

Before the tournament, Brett Eagleson, a founder of the group 9/11 Justice, whose father died helping people evacuate from the World Trade Center towers, told Politico his group would be on site to protest leading golf pros like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson for "choosing to take Saudi payouts and look the other way on the country's human rights abuses and role in the worst terrorist attacks on American soil."

NJ Advance's Steve Politi offered a vivid account of how the July 29 LIV Golf event opened, with AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" blaring while three paratroopers landed "on a fairway nearby carrying a giant American flag." The veteran sportswriter described how Mickelson stepped up to hit his first tee shot and "a heckler cracked the silence with a biting commentary about who is paying his massive salary. 'DO IT FOR THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY!' the man yelled."

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, more people have died from exposure to the air that the EPA — then under the leadership of former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman — erroneously said was "safe to breathe" than died on 9/11 itself. More than 10,000 New Jersey residents are enrolled in the 9/11 WTC Health Program, which treats first responders and survivors with a myriad of chronic diseases and dozens of life-threatening cancers.

Back in 2016, the 9/11 families and their supporters scored a major political victory when they marshaled a bipartisan congressional coalition that overrode Barack Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which gives U.S. victims of international acts of terrorism the ability to sue foreign governments they believe were complicit.

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attack, the Bush administration "downplayed the Saudi connection and suppressed evidence that might link powerful Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families to the funding of Islamic extremism and terrorism," according to former New York Times journalists Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, writing for The Intercept in 2021:

"Many U.S. officials have insisted over the last two decades that the American government is not really hiding any conclusive evidence of Saudi involvement, and it is quite possible that successive presidents, along with the intelligence community, have closed ranks simply to avoid revealing classified information. And it's plausible that officials want to avoid exposing details that might be politically embarrassing for both Washington and the Saudis yet don't prove that the Saudi royal family, the Saudi government, or other powerful Saudi individuals played any role in providing funding or assistance for the September 11 attacks. But the refusal to be open and transparent about such a fundamental issue has fed suspicions.

Two decades later, however, glimpses of material that have become public provide mounting evidence that senior Saudi officials, including one diplomat in the Saudi Embassy in Washington, may in fact have indirectly provided assistance for two of the Al Qaeda hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who were the first of the hijackers to arrive in the United States in 2000 and lived for about a year and a half in San Diego beforehand."

Following the release by the Biden administration of previously classified FBI files, NPR reported that "the partially redacted report shows a closer relationship than had been previously known between two Saudis in particular — including one with diplomatic status — and some of the hijackers. Families of the 9/11 victims have long sought after the report, which painted a starkly different portrait than the one described by the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004."

The 9/11 Commission was at best agnostic about the Saudi connection. Investigators for the panel, which was co-chaired by former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean Sr., estimated that the 9/11 attack cost the al-Qaida conspirators just $400,000 to $500,000 to execute, but that the global network ran on $30 million a year that it largely got from a network of charities.

"Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization," according to the report. "Still, al Qaeda found fertile fund-raising ground in Saudi Arabia, where extreme religious views are common and charitable giving was both essential to the culture and subject to very little oversight."

Furthermore, the report notes that "to date, the U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks. Ultimately the question is of little practical significance."

Both Democratic and Republican administrations have struggled trying to balance the geopolitical interests of the U.S. with the nation's insatiable thirst for cheap oil and its image as a supporter of human rights, which often puts the U.S. at odds with the Saudi government, as in the case of the gruesome Khashoggi murder.

As a candidate, Joe Biden said he was "going to, in fact, make them [Saudi Arabia] pay the price" for that crime, "and make them, in fact, the pariah they are." As President, he pledged that human rights would "be the center of our foreign policy." But in mid-July, facing a global spike in oil prices and the need for support in his campaign against Russia's invasion of Ukraine campaign, he was fist-bumping MBS on a trip to the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Trump's post-presidential dealmaking with the Saudis gives off the familiar odor of self-dealing.

Trump's beleaguered resort empire lost considerable prestige after a decision by the PGA of America to move its 2022 championship away from his New Jersey golf course just days after the Jan. 6 insurrection. As the Washington Post reported at the time, PGA president Jim Richardson issued a video in which he said it had become "clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand and would put at risk the PGA's ability to deliver our many programs and sustain the longevity of our mission."

With several hundred billion dollars available in the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the desert monarchy has made major investments in U.S. blue chip stocks like Uber, according to Bloomberg News. It has spread the fossil-fuel cash around, buying a controlling interest in the English Premier League club Newcastle United for $368 million and dropping hundreds of millions on LIV Golf, an upstart competitor to the PGA.

Last spring, MBS reportedly overruled the sovereign wealth fund's professional asset management professionals to grant Jared Kushner's startup private equity firm $2 billion. As the New York Times reported in April, the expert panel sought to reject Kushner's proposal because of the "inexperience" of his firm and after a review of its operations found them "unsatisfactory in all aspects." Fund officials also balked at Kushner's "excessive" asset management fees, and the perceived "public relations risks" of doing business with the son-in-law and close adviser to Donald Trump.

Within the Trump White House, Kushner was seen as the point man doing damage control for MBS and the Saudis after the murder of Khashoggi, a Virginia resident who had become one of the most effective expatriate critics of the Saudi royal family. According to the New York Times, MBS and Kushner continued to exchange back-channel phone calls and texts well after Khashoggi's death.

"As the killing set off a firestorm around the world and American intelligence agencies concluded that it was ordered by Prince Mohammed," the Times reported, "Mr. Kushner became the prince's most important defender inside the White House, people familiar with its internal deliberations say."

Nothing to see here: Just one royal family helping another.

And to top it all off?

President Donald Trump had the chance to kill the leader of Al Qaeda but didn't because he didn't recognize the terrorist leader's name, NBC News reported in 2020.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, President Joe Biden announced Monday.

His death, which has been praised by many world leaders, is the biggest blow to Al Qaeda since its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US Navy SEALs in 2011.

But plans for al-Zawahiri's execution could have been carried out far earlier, according to an NBC News report published in February 2020.

Intelligence officials briefed Trump many times about senior terrorist figures the CIA wanted to track down and kill, mentioning al-Zawahiri, NBC News reported.

Two people familiar with the briefings told NBC News that Trump chose not to pursue al-Zawahiri because he didn't recognize his name and instead suggested targeting bin Laden's son, Hamza bin Laden.

"He would say, 'I've never heard of any of these people. What about Hamza bin Laden?'" one unnamed former official told NBC News.

A Pentagon official also told the news outlet: "That was the only name he knew."

The Department of Defense and a spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Even though bin Laden's son was widely seen as an emerging figure in the terrorist group, he was not believed to be planning any attacks at the time, NBC News reported.

'THE PRESIDENT'S PREFERENCE FOR A "CELEBRITY" TARGETED KILLING'

Trump confirmed in 2019 that the younger bin Laden had been killed in a US counterterrorism operation earlier on in his presidency.

"Despite intelligence assessments showing the greater dangers posed by Zawahiri, as well as his Iran-based lieutenants al-Masri and Saif al-Adil, and the unlikelihood Hamza was in the immediate line of succession, the president thought differently," the former CIA official Douglas London wrote in Just Security in 2020.

He added that Trump's "obsession" with bin Laden's son "is one example of the President's preference for a 'celebrity' targeted killing versus prioritizing options that could prove better for US security."

In his address announcing al-Zawahiri's death, Biden said that after "relentlessly seeking Zawahiri for years under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump, our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year."

"This mission was carefully planned, rigorously minimized the risk of harm to other civilians, and one week ago, after being advised that the conditions were optimal, I gave the final approval to go get him, and the mission was a success."

Al-Zawahiri helped Osama bin Laden plot the September 11, 2001, attacks, which directly killed nearly 3,000 people.

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