Multiple sources report that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed by a CIA drone strike outside Kabul, Afghanistan. Joe Biden is scheduled to give a 7:30 p.m. address to the nation.

At the time of the 9/11 attack on the United States, al-Zawahiri was the titular second-in-command of al-Qaeda and the personal surgeon of al-Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden. He moved up to Number One after Barack Obama ignored Joe Biden’s advice and launched a counterterrorism operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri has had a $25 million bounty on his head since 9/11.

What does this mean?

On the one hand, it closes another chapter on 9/11. It happened, fittingly, in the country where the 9/11 plot was hatched. I think with the demise of al-Zawahiri, most of the prime movers in that attack are either dead or in Guantanamo, waiting for Biden to award them Dreamer status or something. That is good. The Royal Navy pursued the HMS Bounty and HMS Hermione mutineers around the world for years to bring them to justice as a matter of principle. Pursuing the perpetrators of 9/11 is just as necessary for us to show the world that for some acts, there is neither forgetfulness nor forgiveness.

In terms of practicality, this is a mostly meaningless act. Al-Qaeda has been a spent force for years. In Syria, we gave a wink and a nod as US-trained and -armed fighters were the mainstay of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.  The Number Three in al-Qaeda is in Iran and not allowed to move or act without Iranian approval.

Thread: A few important connections between #Iran and #AlQaeda's Ayman al-#Zawahiri. Not only does Saif al Adl, a potential Zawahiri successor, reside in #Iran, but Zawahiri's son-in-law Abd-al Rahman al-Maghrebi also resides in Iran. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/etKt7ucOVR

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) August 1, 2022

Al-Zawahiri’s presence in Afghanistan probably has a lot less to do with the Taliban thinking of reprising their ill-fated alliance with al-Qaeda than al-Zawahiri seeking a long and quiet retirement in an area far away from America’s intelligence network.

The death of al-Zawahiri at the hands of an anonymous drone pilot, quite possibly somewhere in the United States, contrasts sharply with Navy SEALs shooting bin Laden in the face. It might even be seen as a metaphor for the decline of America’s involvement in that theater of operations and interest in the war of terror.