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Topics: News
Stewart Perrie
Joe Biden has confirmed a US-led drone strike has killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Al-Zawahiri was one of Osama bin Laden's right hand men and helped him plan the September 11 terror attacks.
The CIA organised for a drone strike to hit a particular building in Kabul, Afghanistan and the mission was carried out over the weekend.
He was hiding in a house owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to AP.
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A senior intelligence official told the news outlet that a ground team was sent into the building after the drone strike to confirm al-Zawahiri's death.
The US President hopes the strike will give comfort to those who lost loved ones on 9/11.
Speaking from the White House, Biden said: "Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more. We never back down."
He added: "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 Associated Press says al-Zawahiri helped shape al-Qaeda more than anyone.
He served as deputy of the terrorist organisation from 1998 and then assumed the leadership position when bin Laden was killed in a US-led mission in 2011.
After the September 11 attacks, ABC News reports al-Zawahiri went on the run.
He set up an al-Qaeda base on the Afghan-Pakistan border region and ruled over branches in Iraq, Asia, Yemen and other locations.
Saudi Arabia has welcomed Joe Biden's news that al-Zawahiri has been killed.
The state-run news agency said in a statement: "Zawahiri is considered one of the leaders of terrorism that led the planning and execution of heinous terrorist operations in the United States and Saudi Arabia."
ABC News reports there were no civilian casualties in the drone strike that killed the al-Qaeda leader.
Joe Biden said in his address: "He will never again - never again - allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven, because he is gone, and we are going to make sure that nothing else happens."