According to US officials, a CIA drone strike killed Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of Al Qaeda, was killed by a CIA drone attack in Afghanistan, US officials informed Reuters on Monday. This is the militant group's gravest setback since the death of its founder Osama bin Laden in 2011.

On Sunday, the CIA carried out a drone hit in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, according to one of the officials who spoke on the record on the condition of anonymity.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, stated that a strike had occurred and strongly criticised it as a breaching of "international standards."

On Monday at 7:30 p.m. (2330 GMT), U.S. President Joe Biden will speak about what the White House called a "successful counter-terrorism operation."

Zawahiri's presence in the Afghan capital Kabul, according to the official, was a "obvious violation" of a deal the Taliban and the US made in Doha in 2020 that allowed for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.