"Over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al-Qaeda target in Afghanistan," the senior administration official said, according to Fox News. "The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties."
Intelligences sources told the outlet the leader was al-Zawahiri, and he was killed in a CIA drone strike.
President Joe Biden is expected to address the country at 7:30 p.m. about the strike.
Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list after 9/11 with a reward of $25 million for information leading to his arrest.
Al-Zawahiri, along with Osama bin Laden, orchestrated the 9/11 terroristic attacks and then evaded U.S. assassination attempts for decades.
Comment: No they didn't: Dancing Israelis on 9/11 points to the real criminals of that day: 'Our purpose was to document the event'
He was indicted for "his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya."
Al-Zawahiri was the founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which merged with al-Qaeda after 1998. He took over as the leader of the terrorist organization after U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in 2011.
Comment: PBS reports: It's rather revealing that the Taliban sound more reasonable than the US.