Before the recent attack, which was announced hours ago, during which the United States said that it had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the United States had previously targeted leaders of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in several places, most notably: Yemen, Syria, Somalia and the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Here are the most prominent of them:
Ayman Al-Zawahiri
July 2022
US President Joe Biden announced at dawn today, Tuesday, the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US raid on a house in Afghanistan last Saturday.
Biden explained that the intelligence services located al-Zawahiri earlier this year, stressing that he had been the mastermind of attacks against Americans for decades, he said.
US intelligence services located al-Zawahiri earlier this year (French)
Maher El Oqal
July 2022
The White House and the US military announced last July that Maher Al-Aqal - a prominent figure in the Islamic State who worked to build ISIS networks outside Iraq and Syria - was killed in a US drone strike in northwest Syria.
Operations officials said the strike would undermine the group's ability to plan and carry out attacks worldwide.
Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Qurashi
February 2022
Last February, the US President announced that US special operations forces had carried out a mission to combat terrorism in Syria, during which the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi, was killed.
He said that the operation targeted a two-storey house in the Syrian province of Idlib, and US officials told reporters that al-Qurashi detonated a bomb that killed him and his family.
The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in Idlib (Al-Jazeera)
Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
October 2019
In October 2019, former US President Donald Trump announced that the then leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed during a US military operation in Syria.
In a night operation on October 26, 2019, helicopters transported a team of US special operations forces to northwest Syria, to launch an attack on a compound of militants there, as it was announced at the time.
Trump said that al-Baghdadi detonated an explosive vest inside a blocked tunnel, killing him and three of his sons.
Hamza bin Laden
September 2019
Former President Donald Trump said in September 2019 that Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaeda, was killed by US forces in an anti-terror operation in the Afghanistan and Pakistan regions.
Trump said that Hamza bin Laden was responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups, describing his death as a blow to the organization's leadership.
The American team killed bin Laden and took his body and a set of papers and personal belongings (communication sites)
Osama bin Laden
May 2011
On the night of May 1, 2011, former US President Barack Obama and senior officials from the White House Situation Room watched a raid by US forces into a compound in which al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding.
The American team killed bin Laden and took his body and a set of papers and personal belongings that were with him, then the Americans later said that the body was "buried" at sea, which was condemned by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar in Egypt, Ahmed Al-Tayeb and considered it an insult to religious and Islamic values.
At the time, President Obama described the killing of Osama bin Laden as the most important achievement in the United States' efforts to defeat al-Qaeda.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a raid on a house north of Baghdad (Al-Jazeera)
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
June 2006
On June 7, 2006, US forces killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in an air strike on a house north of Baghdad.
Military officials said at the time that six people were killed in the raid, including a woman and a child.