Killing of al-Qaida leader is long-sought 'justice': Biden

Washington DC: President Joe Biden announced that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul, an operation he hailed as delivering "justice" while expressing hope that it brings "one more measure of closure" to families of the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The president said in a Monday evening address from the White House that US intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out Sunday.

Al-Zawahri and the better known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in an operation carried out by US Navy Seals after a nearly decade-long hunt.

"He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we're going to make sure that nothing else happens," Biden said.

"This terrorist leader is no more," he added.