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WEKU
Politics
Colin P. Clarke

Opinion: What Ayman al-Zawahiri's death means for al-Qaida's future

alQaida Islamic State bin Laden Ayman alZawahiri Osama bin Laden Afghanistan
In this 1998 file photo, Ayman al-Zawahiri (left) holds a press conference with Osama bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan. Zawahiri succeeded bin Laden as al-Qaida's leader following the 2011 U.S. raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan. (Mazhar Ali Khan/Associated Press)

Colin P. Clarke (@ColinPClarke) is the director of research at the Soufan Group and a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center.

After hunting for him for 21 years, U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend with a drone strike targeting him at a safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan. Zawahiri had led al-Qaida since May 2011, when U.S. special operations forces killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

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