The target of the "successful counter-terrorism operation" in Afghanistan announced on Monday by a senior American official was the leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, killed over the weekend in a drone strike, according to the American media.
Zawahiri had taken the head of the terrorist organization after the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. US President Joe Biden is due to speak on the subject during a televised address at 7:30 p.m. (23:30 GMT).
A little earlier, a senior US administration official had announced the success of a “counter-terrorism operation against an important target within Al-Qaeda” in Afghanistan.
“The operation was successful and caused no civilian casualties,” this source told reporters.
ISIS leader in Syria killed in July
This announcement comes almost a year after the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, which had allowed the Taliban to regain control of the country twenty years later.
The United States had also announced in mid-July that it had killed the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, Maher al-Agal, during a drone strike, an operation which had "considerably weakened the capacity of the 'ISIS to prepare, finance and conduct its operations in the region,' according to a US military spokesman.
