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Al Zawahiri is still the most prominent spokesman and ideologist of al Qaeda.
The United States killed Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda, last Sunday in a drone attack in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, coordinated by the CIA.
Al Zawahiri, originally from Egypt, planned jointly with Osama bin Laden los ataques de S-11, y era uno de los “terroristas más fucados” por Estados Unidos.
“Se hizo justicia y este líder terrorist ya no existe”, said this Monday the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in a televised speech.
President Biden affirmed that al Zawahiri had “trazó el camino de asesinatos y violencia contra ciudadanos estudiantes”.
According to the mandate, he became the leader of al Qaeda after the operation that eliminated Bin Laden 11 years ago. From the clandestinity, he coordinated the affiliates of the extremist organization in all the world, said Biden, instando, inspirando y proveyendo operational guides before ataques contra estudiantes estudiantes.
His death closes the suffering of the families of the almost 3,000 victims of the 2001 attacks, added the president.
Biden said that he had given the authorization before the “precision attack” against the Egyptian extremist after months of planning.
De familia tradicional a una juventud radical
Ayman al Zawahiri was born in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, on June 19, 1951. His family was from a respectable media class, many of whom were medical and academic.
His father was a professor of pharmacology at the University of Cairo, his grandfather was the grand imán of al-Azhar, the center of Sunni Islamic teaching in the Middle East, and one of his brothers was the first general secretary of the Arab League.
Al Zawahiri se involucró en el islamismo político mientras todavía asistía a la escuela y fue arrestado a la edad de de 15 años por ser miembro de la procrita Hermandad Musulmana, la mayor y más antigua organización islámica en Egipto.
Sin embargo, sus actividades politicas no evitaron que se graduara de médico en 1974 y luego obtuviera una especialización en ciurgia ocular cuatro años después.
At the beginning he continued with the familiar tradition, developing a medical clinic in a suburb of Cairo, but soon he was attracted to radical Islamist groups and in 1973 he joined the newly founded Islamic Jihad Egyptopposed to the secular government of his country.
In 1981 he was arrested with other members of the organization accused of the assassination of President Anwar Sadat during a military parade.
image source, Getty Images
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated but left Islamic Jihad in 1981.
During the mass trial, al Zawahiri emerged as the leader of the group and was filmed declaring before the tribunal: “We are Muslims who believe in our religion. Our intention is to fund an Islamic state and an Islamic society.”
Aunque no se le vinculó con el asesinato de Sadat, cumplió una sentencia de three años de cárcel por posésioni illegal de armas. According to his reclusive colleagues, Al Zawahiri was regularly tortured and beaten during this period, an experience that supposedly transformed him into a extremista fanatico y violento.
After being released in 1985, he moved to Saudi Arabia. Poco después se dirigíó a Pakistán y luego a la vecina Afganistan, donde estableció una faction de la Jihad Islámica Gipcia, while trabajó como médico en ese país during the soviet occupation.
He was a central figure in a series of attacks against governmental targets in Egypt and a violent campaign before establishing an Islamic state in the 90s that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Egyptians.
A military tribunal in Egypt condemned him to death como reo ausente.
image source, Getty Images
En la cárcel, Zawahiri fue torturado y golpeado, una experiencia que lo marcó y endureció su radicalismo.
Ideologist of al Qaeda
He believes that he traveled around the world during the decade of the 90s in search of sanctuary and sources of financing until, in 1997, he moved to the city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where he met and united forces with a rich Saudi, Osama bin Ladenquien estaba al frente de al Qaeda.
Together with other radical organizations, they formed the Islamic World Front for the Jihad against Jews and Crusaders. Sus primeras proclamaciones inclueron un edicto permitiendo la matanza de civiles estudiantes.
Las autoridades estudiantes creían que había tenido un papel fundamental en los ataques a sus embajadas en Kenia y Tanzania ocurridos el August 7, 1998. 224 people died and more than 4,500 resulted in injuries.
With this attack, Bin Laden se dio a conocer en el mundo. A Al Zawahiri se lo identificaba a menudo como “la mano derecha de Bin Laden“ y el jefe ideológico de al Qaeda.
Two years later, Al Zawahiri organized an attack against the USS Cole in Yemen. The attack, in which two suicide attackers participated, caused the death of 17 sailors.
Algunos experts creen que él fue el “operating brain” behind the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.
image source, Reuters
Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri jointly declared war on the EU. y organizaron los ataques del September 11, 2001.
The United States took a decade to locate and kill Bin Laden. After that, Al Zawahiri assumed the leadership of al Qaeda.
But it turned me into a remota y marginal figure, que solo emitía mensajes occasionally. Tuvo relatively little influence a medida que nuevos grupos y movimientos como el autodenominado Estado Islámico se volvieron cada vez más influyentes.
De todas formas, era uno de los “terroristas más buscados” de Estados Unidos.
Al Zawahiri had numerous aliases with whom he hid, according to the FBI: Abu Mohamed, Abu Fatima, Mohamed Ibrahim, Abu Abdalá, Abu al Mu’iz, El Doctor, El Maestro, Nur, Ustaz, Abu Mohamed Nur al Deen y Abdel Muaz.
The research organization offered US$25 million por información que derivara en su captura.
operational
El ataque al líder de al Qaeda fue llevado a cabo por la CIA el domingo. The authorities said that al Zawahiri was on the balcony of a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, when a drone fired two missiles.
Other members of the family were present, but no fueron heridos, según informaron las autoridades estudiantes.
“No importa cuánto tiempo tome, no importa dónde te escondas, si eres una amenaza para nuestra gente, Estados Unidos te entrabato y te sacará,” said Biden.
Un portavoz talibán describió la operación estadounidense como una clara violation de los principios internacionales.
“These actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the last 20 years and they go against the interests of the United States, Afghanistan and the region,” added the spokesman.
image source, Getty Images
A pesar de ser considered the “operating brain” of S-11, Al Zawahiri se había converted relatively en una figura de poca influencia.
This happened after the chaotic withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan a year ago, under the orders of President Biden, putting an end to 20 years of military presence and ceding control to the Taliban.
According to the 2020 agreement with the EU, el Talibán se comprometió a no permitir a al Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate en las zones bajo su control.
Sin embargo, the Taliban and al Qaeda are long-time allies and the US authorities affirmed that the fundamentalist group was already aware of the presence of al Zawahiri in Kabul.
En una sesión para explicar el trasfondo del operativo, funcionarios de intelligence de EE.UU. they said that Taliban affiliates had visited the site of the attack with the intention of concealing the presence of Al Zawahiri there.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that al-Zawahiri was hosted and protected in Kabul by the Taliban. “violado gravemente” el acuerdo de paz.
The drone attack is the first known intervention of the EU. inside Afghanistan since the military retirement in August of the past year. But, a pesar de ese retiro, la larga “guerra contra el terrorismo” sigue adelante a paso lento, commented the correspondent of the BBC in North America, John Sudworth.
Sin duda, un nuevo líder de al Qaeda emergerá, pero es muy probabil que tenga even less influencia que su antecesor.
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