The aircraft then hit the propeller of the drone, prompting US forces to bring the MQ-9 drone down in international waters. The Reaper drone and two Russian Su-27 aircraft were flying over international waters over the Black Sea on Tuesday when one of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of and dumped fuel on the unmanned drone several times, a statement from US European Command said. Mr Obama, in his memoirs, wrote that Mr Biden was concerned about "the enormous consequences of failure" and counselled the president to "defer any decision until the intelligence community was more certain that bin Laden was in the compound.A Russian fighter jet forced down a US Air Force drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday after damaging the propeller of the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, according to the US military. Then-vice-president Biden acknowledged he advised Mr Obama to take more time, but also told him to "follow your instincts", ultimately supporting his decision to go ahead. Mr Biden's decision to kill Zawahiri is likely to be compared to the cautious stance he initially took in meetings that led to then-president Barack Obama's order for the Pakistan raid that killed bin Laden in 2011. His whereabouts – variously rumoured to be in Pakistan's tribal area or inside Afghanistan – had been unknown until the strike.Ī video released in April, in which he praised an Indian Muslim woman for defying a ban on wearing an Islamic head scarf, dispelled rumours that he had died. There were rumours of Zawahiri's death several times in recent years, and he was long reported to have been in poor health. It was not immediately clear how the United States, which does not have US troops on the ground, confirmed that Zawahiri had been killed.Ī senior official said there were no US personnel on the ground in Kabul when the strike occurred, however, multiple intelligence sources gave "high confidence" that Zawahiri had been killed. Lingering questions about Al Qaeda leader's movements He was indicted in the United States for his role in the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded more than 5,000 others.īoth bin laden and Zawahiri had eluded capture when US-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government in late 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the US.īin Laden was killed in 2011 by US forces in Pakistan. With other senior al-Qaeda members, Zawahiri is believed to have plotted the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole naval vessel in Yemen that killed 17 US sailors and injured more than 30 others. The US expects to have continued dialogue with the Taliban. One Taliban source, requesting anonymity, said there had been reports of at least one drone flying over Kabul that morning. There were no casualties as the house was empty," Abdul Nafi Takor, spokesman of the interior ministry, said earlier. "A house was hit by a rocket in Sherpoor. "The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm," he said.īut in a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that a strike took place and strongly condemned it, calling it a violation of "international principles." In his remarks on the successful counter-terrorism operation, Mr Biden said the world would no longer need to fear Zawahiri. US intelligence determined with "high confidence" that the man killed was Zawahiri, according to a senior administration official. "Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more," Mr Biden said in remarks from the White House. One US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a drone strike was carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital Kabul early Sunday morning. The Egyptian doctor and surgeon helped coordinate the 9/11 attacks in which four civilian aircraft were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York, the Pentagon near Washington and a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 3,000 people. Zawahiri was killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan, the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by a US operation in 2011.
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