Even While Reducing Military Presence in the Middle East, President Biden Racks Up Impressive Tally of Dead Terrorist Leaders

     On July 31st, 2022, the United States conducted an operation that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda. While the group has largely taken a backseat to ISIL in the past decade, this strike was significant for a number of reasons. The 71-year-old former surgeon has spent virtually his entire adult life involved in violent Islamic extremism in a variety of groups, including al-Qaeda since its inception in the late 1980s. Ayman al-Zawahiri was second-in-command to Osama bin Laden and played a crucial role in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the USS Cole in 2000 as well as the terrorist attacks on 9/11. In his role as head of al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri led the push among extremists in the Muslim world to kidnap Western tourists in Muslim countries. This strike was accomplished without injuring a single civilian or even a member of the emir's family, and it also highlighted that, even a year after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States can and will take action to defend itself even in the heart of Kabul.

     Obama killed Osama bin Laden, Trump killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Biden killed Ayman al-Zawahiri. Except, al-Zawahiri was far from the only terrorist leader that President Biden managed to eliminate in 2022 alone. In February 2022, President Biden ordered a raid that killed the leader of ISIS, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. This raid was as significant as the al-Baghdadi raid under Trump: al-Baghdadi was the figurehead of ISIS, a spiritual leader who was used to lend credibility to ISIL's extreme brand of Islam and played little role on the battlefield. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, on the other hand, was al-Baghdadi's second-in-command while ISIS was still a caliphate, and he played a critical role in the genocide against Yezidis and Christians in Iraq while overseeing ISIL's spread using global branches with a lifetime of battlefield experience under the banners of al-Qaeda and then ISIS. During the raid, like during the al-Baghdadi raid, he chose to detonate a suicide vest (highlighting a difference in tactics between ISIS and al-Qaeda) and kill himself and several members of his family; the United States evacuated 10 civilians to safety.

     The United States could be on the midst of another breakthrough in the fight against ISIS. In May 2022, Turkey announced that it had arrested Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the third leader of ISIS for a grand total of 77 days at that point. The younger brother of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and a man who claims to be the direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad, his arrest would be unprecedented but has yet to be verified by the United States. If his arrest did, in fact, happen, the Department of Justice must move to file criminal charges against him immediately. Losing two leaders in the same year would be a humiliating defeat for the terrorist group.

     It's not just the top leaders of ISIS and al-Qaeda, either. In October 2021, the United States backed Iraqi forces in the capture of Sami Jassim Mohammad al-Jabouri, the group's minister of finance, in a cross-border operation. Now charged in Iraq, he almost certainly faces the death penalty in a country that has been eager to make an example out of terrorists. That same month, Iraq arrested Abu Obeida Baghdad, the mastermind behind the deadliest bombings in Iraqi history. In June 2022, meanwhile, a U.S. raid captured Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi, a master bombmaker who served as the leader of Raqqa when it was the capital of ISIL's caliphate, in Syria.

     In July 2022, the U.S. killed Maher al-Agal, among the top five ISIS commanders in rank and the leader of ISIS in Syria; he wasn't the first ISIS deputy leader killed in an airstrike, either. The earliest of President Biden's anti-terrorism victories actually came in January 2021, when a U.S. airstrike killed Abu Yasser al-Issawi, the leader of ISIS in Iraq who held the title of deputy caliph. There are many other victories to speak of:

1. The United States helped defend against an ISIS attack on a prison in Syria, the largest attack by the group since its total loss of territory in 2019, resulting in the attack failing.
2. ISIS "Beatles" "Jihadi Ringo" and "Jihadi George" (given the name by the media because they were four initially-unidentified men with British accents) were convicted of taking hostages resulting in death and sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the capture and execution of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller. "Jihadi John," the executioner in these videos, had been killed by a U.S. airstrike during the Obama administration, while "Jihadi Paul" is jailed in Turkey; I'm calling on Attorney General Garland to indict and extradite the last terrorist wanted for instilling fear in so many Americans back in 2014 and 2015.
3. A member of ISIS was the first to be convicted of genocide in a court of law after he was found guilty in a German court in the death of a five-year-old Yezidi girl.
4. President Biden designated ISIS-Democratic Republic of the Congo a terrorist group and deployed 1,000 troops to help fight them as well as capture wanted war criminals from decades of previous conflict.
5. President Biden also designated ISIS-Mozambique a terrorist group and deployed 60 Green Berets to train the nation's military to fight these violent extremists with a long, gruesome history of targeting civilians in the northern portion of the country.
6. President Biden redeployed 250 troops to Somalia in an advisory role to build closer ties with the nation's military in the fight against al-Shabaab.

     These last three steps reflect something President Biden stated in his address to Congress in April 2021: the Middle East is the battlefield of yesterday. That's why he ended the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq in 2021. His foreign policy leads with diplomacy, from negotiating a truce in the War in Yemen to negotiating the opening of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia to helping the War in Iraq see fatalities dip beneath 1,000 for the first time in two decades (which makes it no longer classified as a major war). In spite of these moves, which will save the lives of thousands, President Biden has been able to rack up an impressive tally of dead terrorist leaders by focusing operations on the targets with the most value and the targets who pose the greatest risk to the United States. He has reformed America's drone policy, mandating that strikes (as well as raids) be personally approved and that all civilian casualties be reported, something the Trump administration kept hidden. 

     These types of raids and strikes save lives and deliver justice, and they will continue, with the focus on America's anti-terrorism efforts shifting to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. In the meantime, America has a lot to do ensuring stability in Europe, competing with China, and building closer ties to nations in Latin America. There's nothing America can't do with strong bipartisan support and a strong coalition of global partners.