He became radicalized early on, planned a number of attacks and eventually became Bin Laden's successor. But under al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda lost importance. His death is less a major blow to terrorism than a clear US signal to the Taliban.
He is not nearly as well known as Osama bin Laden and was often overshadowed by the public. But Aiman al-Zawahiri, who was killed by a drone strike by the United States on Saturday, was not simply his successor at the head of al-Qaeda either. He wasn't number two, but at least as dangerous a terrorist whose trail of blood stretched across several continents. And he was an important figure in the Islamist terror networks.
"Justice has been served and this terrorist leader is no longer alive," said US President Joe Biden after the successful attack. Al-Zawahiri was the mastermind behind attacks on Americans and played a key role in various terrorist attacks. It was a reference not only to the September 11, 2001 attacks, but also to the attacks on the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998 and on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, for al-Zawahiri's terrorist group al-Jihad ("Holy War") was responsible.
Born in Egypt in 1951, he became radicalized early on. He was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, led a terrorist cell with dozens of members in the early 1970s - while also practicing medicine - and eventually rose to become the leader of al-Jihad. He terrorized the Egyptian government, recruited supporters and fought with the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders - where he first met bin Laden.
Even though al-Zawahiri continued to pursue his own plans in the 1990s and looked for supporters around the world, he always remained close to Bin Laden - not least because Bin Laden was more successful in recruiting and had larger cash reserves. He set up several terror training camps with bin Laden in Sudan, and together they went to Afghanistan in the late 1990s after the Taliban had seized power there. Under bin Laden's influence, he also increasingly targeted western, especially US, targets.
The Saudi Arabian and the Egyptian became the leading duo of al Qaeda, after 9/11 they appeared together in a video. In the years that followed, in writing and video messages, al-Zawahiri not only justified the mass murder of September 11, but also other terrorist attacks such as those in London in 2005 or the Islamist struggle in Somalia. Finally, in 2011, al-Zawahiri became the new head of al-Qaeda after the US killed bin Laden in Pakistan in a night-time raid. For the US, he became the most wanted international terrorist, with a bounty of 25 million US dollars.
However, Al-Zawahiri increasingly lost influence and never reached the appeal of his predecessor. In 2013, for example, the terrorist group Islamic State broke away from al-Qaeda and in the years that followed gained in size and power through territorial gains in Syria and Iraq. Many young jihadists joined the more dynamic IS, which remained the best-known Islamist terrorist organization even after the end of its own caliphate. The IS also became active in Afghanistan, where a year ago Western troops finally withdrew and the Islamist Taliban were able to take power again.
But the Islamic State plays a different role in the Hindu Kush than al-Qaeda, which is allied with the Taliban. "There is the local offshoot of the Islamic State, ISKP, which continues to fight armed against the Taliban and carries out attacks. ISKP would like to take over the state," Afghanistan expert Thomas Ruttig told ntv.de. But there are also al-Qaeda and other militant groups. "In my opinion, the Taliban have them relatively securely under control," says Ruttig. "They are also not interested in attacks being carried out again from Afghanistan, because they don't want to attract international attention again."
The death of the 71-year-old terrorist is therefore not so much a major blow to international terrorism, but rather a warning from the USA to the new rulers in Kabul. Under President Donald Trump, they signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban leadership. In it, Washington undertook to withdraw all of its own troops. The Taliban, in turn, not only promised peace talks with the then-government - which became obsolete when they took power in August 2021 - but also that they would not harbor terrorists. This agreement was primarily aimed at al-Qaeda.
The Taliban may protest against the precision strike, but it was they themselves who have recently repeatedly emphasized that they no longer want to provide terrorists with shelter. And with the death of al-Zawahiri in the middle of Kabul, the USA is showing very clearly that they remember Doha. A US government official said the Taliban had clearly violated agreements with the United States. And members of the Taliban leadership would have known about the whereabouts of the al Qaeda boss. That's not surprising: he died in a house in the former diplomatic district, which, according to the New York Times, belongs to the real estate property of Sirajuddin Haqqani, a warlord and interior minister of the Taliban transitional government. Other Taliban figures also live in the area, including the prime minister of the transitional government and his deputy. It was unthinkable that Al-Sawahiri could have hidden here.
According to its own statements, the USA has been preparing the attack on al-Sawahiri for months. That also means that they didn't track him down until after the Taliban were back in power. Before that, he is said to have been hiding in the border area with Pakistan. It's quite possible that the al-Qaeda boss felt safe again after the change of power. It is said that he wanted to spend more time with his family, who moved into the house in question. Perhaps he was thinking back to the time he was free to roam Afghanistan with bin Laden before the Taliban were overthrown after 9/11.
"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," President Biden said. Before the important midterm elections in the fall, he can claim a long-overdue victory in the fight against terror, which is also supposed to cover up the chaotic withdrawal a year ago. But the death of al-Zawahiri cannot distract from the fact that al-Qaeda has lost importance under the 71-year-old and that other terrorist organizations are currently posing a greater threat.
