AOP Health Starts Research for Leukemia Treatment

AOP Health signed an agreement with Leukos Biotech for the further development of a newly discovered chemical substance. With this agreement AOP Health expands the hemato-oncology research area even further and provides additional treatment options for certain leukemia patients in the longer term.

Agnes Kohl, Chief Business Officer, AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Member of the AOP Health Group

Photo credit: Studio Koekart: Natascha Unkart & Isabelle Köhler

VIENNA, Austria, Aug. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The AOP Health Group (AOP Health) is a European pioneer for integrated therapies for rare diseases and in critical care headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The company focuses on research, development and global sales of innovative treatment solutions and specializes in therapies for rare diseases and intensive care. In early July, AOP Health signed an agreement with Leukos Biotech, a spin-off company founded by the Barcelona-based Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute. The agreement signed by AOP Health covers the option for developments of the newly discovered chemical substance within any treatable indication, not limited to oncological or rare diseases.

Luis Ruiz-Avila, Chief Executive Officer Leukos Biotech

Copyright: Albert Mollon

Agreement sets basis for new areas of therapy

At first, AOP Health will focus on the development of treatment options for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). Both are special disease types of leukemia that often start in the bone marrow. Agnes Kohl, Chief Business Officer of AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Member of the AOP Health Group explains: “Based on positive data, our plan is to expand the development for further orphan indications even outside of AML and MDS at a later stage. With this agreement, we may be able to broaden the portfolio within our therapeutic areas offering even more treatment options for patients.”

Development in cooperation with Leukos

As AOP Health focuses on rare, hemato-oncological cancers and has many years of experience in the development and commercialization of hemato-oncological treatments, the company will drive the further development of the substance in cooperation with Leukos based on a new mode of action. This could potentially turn into a milestone in the treatment of many blood cancer and other cancer patients. Luis Ruiz-Avila, Chief Executive Officer of Leukos Biotech: “We focus on developing new treatments for a wide variety of tumors. We were born to transform excellent science from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute into valuable products for cancer patients in need, and this agreement is a very significant step in that direction. We are convinced that AOP Health is the right partner to turn this promising, novel mechanism of action into a clinical reality for the benefit of patients in a wide variety of unmet medical needs”.

About AOP Health

The AOP Health Group incorporates several companies including AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH with its seat in Vienna, Austria (“AOP Health”). The AOP Health Group is the European pioneer for integrated therapies for rare diseases and in critical care. Over the past 25 years, the Group has become an established provider of integrated therapy solutions operating from its headquarters in Vienna, its subsidiaries and representative offices throughout Europe and the Middle East, as well as through partners worldwide. This development has been made possible by a continually high level of investment in research and development on the one hand and a highly consistent and pragmatic orientation towards the needs of all its stakeholders on the other – especially the patients and their families as well as also the healthcare professionals treating them.

About Leukos

Leukos Biotech, SL (Leukos) is a spin-off company from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute incorporated in Barcelona in 2015. The company is developing new treatments and diagnostic tools for a wide variety of tumors targeting the serotonin receptor HTR1B, which antitumoral potential was first described and patented by Leukos’ founder Dr. Ruth Risueño in her laboratory at the Josep Carreras Research Institute. Leukos’ main financial support is from private and institutional investors. The main shareholders are Inveready, CDTI Innvierte and the Josep Carreras Foundation. Besides investors’ support, Leukos has received non-dilutive grants and loans from the Catalan Government, the Spanish Government and the European Union in various programs.

About the Josep Carreras Foundation

The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation was established in 1988 with the intention of contributing to finding a definitive cure for this disease. Its efforts are concentrated on four basic areas: administering the Spanish Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDMO), scientific research, carried out by the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, patient guidance through an online patient consultation channel, and reception apartments for patients who need to undergo treatment and have to spend a long time far from home.

About the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute

The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, a public centre pertaining to the Generalitat de Catalunya’s CERCA network, was established in 2010 with the aim of furthering biomedical research and personalised medicine in the field of leukaemia and other onco-hematological diseases. It is the first research centre in Europe exclusively focussed on leukaemia and malignant blood diseases, and one of the very few in the world. The Josep Carreras Institutes has three coordinated but independent scientific campuses: University of Barcelona Hospital Clínic Campus, The Catalan Institute of Oncology/Germans Trias i Pujol Campus, and the Sant Pau – Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) Campus

About Inveready

Inveready is a leading alternative asset manager in Spain – investing in early-stage VC, growth VC, venture debt, strategic equity in listed companies, infrastructure and private equity – providing financing solutions to companies throughout their life-cycle. Founded in 2008, Inveready counts on 200 active companies, and more than €1bn of assets under management. Inveready has been investing in companies in the Life Sciences sector since 2008. Notable investments in this vertical are Atrys Health (listed on the Spanish market), EDESA Biotech (listed on Nasdaq), AVX Pharma (sold to Aerie Biotech) and PaloBiofarma (licensing agreement with Novartis). Inveready is headquartered in San Sebastian, and has other offices in Barcelona and Madrid. It has been recognized on multiple occasions by ASCRI and Preqin for the return on its funds and transactions (For more information, visit www.inveready.com).

Mag Nina Roth, MAS
nina.roth@aop-health.com

AOP Health
Needs. Science. Trust.

AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Member of the AOP Health Group

Leopold-Ungar-Platz 2, 1190 Vienna, Austria
aop-health.com

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AOP Health commence la recherche d’un traitement pour la leucémie

AOP Health a signé un accord avec Leukos Biotech pour la poursuite du développement d’une substance chimique récemment découverte. Avec cet accord, AOP Health élargit encore davantage le domaine de la recherche sur l’hémato-oncologie et propose des options de traitement supplémentaires à certains patients atteints de leucémie sur le long terme.

VIENNE, Autriche, 01 août 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AOP Health Group (AOP Health) est un pionnier européen des thérapies intégrées pour les maladies rares et les soins intensifs basé à Vienne, en Autriche. La société se concentre sur la recherche, le développement et la vente mondiale de solutions de traitement innovantes et se spécialise dans les thérapies pour les maladies rares et les soins intensifs. Début juillet, AOP Health a signé un accord avec Leukos Biotech, une société dérivée fondée par l’institut de recherche sur la leucémie Josep Carreras, basé à Barcelone. L’accord signé par AOP Health couvre l’option de développement de la substance chimique récemment découverte dans le cadre de toute indication traitable, non limitée aux maladies oncologiques ou rares.

L’accord établit la base de nouveaux domaines thérapeutiques

Dans un premier temps, AOP Health se concentrera sur le développement d’options de traitement pour la leucémie myéloïde aiguë (LMA) et le syndrome myélodysplasique (SMD). Les deux sont des types particuliers de leucémie qui commencent souvent dans la moelle osseuse. Agnes Kohl, directrice commerciale d’AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH, membre du groupe AOP Health, explique : « Sur la base de données positives, notre plan est d’étendre le développement d’autres indications orphelines même en dehors de la LMA et du SMD à un stade ultérieur. Grâce à cet accord, nous pourrons peut-être élargir le portefeuille de nos domaines thérapeutiques en offrant encore plus d’options de traitement aux patients. »

Développement en coopération avec Leukos

Comme AOP Health se concentre sur les cancers hémato-oncologiques rares et possède de nombreuses années d’expérience dans le développement et la commercialisation de traitements hémato-oncologiques, la société pilotera le développement ultérieur de la substance en coopération avec Leukos sur la base d’un nouveau mode d’action. Cela pourrait potentiellement devenir une étape importante dans le traitement de nombreux cancers du sang et autres patients atteints de cancer. Luis Ruiz-Avila, PDG de Leukos Biotech : « Nous nous concentrons sur le développement de nouveaux traitements pour une grande variété de tumeurs. Nous sommes nés pour transformer l’excellente science de l’Institut de recherche sur la leucémie Josep Carreras en produits précieux pour les patients atteints de cancer dans le besoin, et cet accord est une étape très importante dans cette direction. Nous sommes convaincus qu’AOP Health est le bon partenaire pour transformer ce nouveau mécanisme d’action prometteur en une réalité clinique au profit des patients présentant une grande variété de besoins médicaux non satisfaits. »

À propos d’AOP Health

Le groupe AOP Health comprend plusieurs sociétés, dont AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH, dont le siège se trouve à Vienne, en Autriche (« AOP Health »). Le groupe AOP Health est le pionnier européen des thérapies intégrées pour les maladies rares et les soins critiques. Au cours des 25 dernières années, le groupe est devenu un fournisseur établi de solutions de thérapie intégrées opérant depuis son siège social à Vienne, ses filiales et ses bureaux de représentation à travers l’Europe et le Moyen-Orient, ainsi que par l’intermédiaire de partenaires dans le monde entier. Ce développement a été rendu possible par un niveau d’investissement continu élevé dans la recherche et le développement, d’une part, et par une orientation très cohérente et pragmatique vis-à-vis des besoins de toutes ses parties prenantes, d’autre part, en particulier les patients et leurs familles, ainsi que les professionnels de la santé qui les prennent en charge.

À propos de Leukos

Leukos Biotech, SL (Leukos) est une société dérivée de l’Institut de recherche sur la leucémie Josep Carreras, créée à Barcelone en 2015. La société développe de nouveaux traitements et outils de diagnostic pour une large variété de tumeurs ciblant le récepteur de la sérotonine HTR1B, dont le potentiel antitumoral a été décrit pour la première fois et breveté par le Dr Ruth Risueño, fondateur de Leukos dans son laboratoire à l’Institut de recherche Josep Carreras. Le principal soutien financier de Leukos provient d’investisseurs privés et institutionnels. Les principaux actionnaires sont Inveready, CDTI Innvierte et la Fondation Josep Carreras. Outre le soutien des investisseurs, Leukos a reçu des subventions et des prêts non dilutifs du gouvernement catalan, du gouvernement espagnol et de l’Union européenne dans le cadre de divers programmes.

À propos de la Fondation Josep Carreras

La Fondation Josep Carreras Leukaemia a été créée en 1988 dans le but de contribuer à la recherche d’un remède définitif pour cette maladie. Ses efforts se concentrent sur quatre domaines fondamentaux : l’administration du Registre espagnol de donneurs de moelle osseuse (REDMO), la recherche scientifique menée par l’Institut de recherche sur la leucémie Josep Carreras, l’orientation des patients via un canal de consultation des patients en ligne et des appartements d’accueil pour les patients qui ont besoin de subir un traitement et doivent passer beaucoup de temps loin de chez eux.

À propos de l’Institut de recherche sur la leucémie Josep Carreras

L’Institut de recherche sur la leucémie Josep Carreras, centre public appartenant au réseau CERCA de la Generalitat de Catalunya, a été créé en 2010 dans le but de promouvoir la recherche biomédicale et la médecine personnalisée dans le domaine de la leucémie et d’autres maladies onco-hématologiques. Il s’agit du premier centre de recherche européen exclusivement dédié à la leucémie et aux hémopathies malignes, et l’un des rares au monde. Les Instituts Josep Carreras disposent de trois campus scientifiques coordonnés mais indépendants : le Campus clinique de l’Hôpital de l’Université de Barcelone, le Campus de l’Institut catalan d’oncologie/allemands Trias i Pujol et le Campus de Sant Pau – Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

À propos d’Inveready

Inveready est un gestionnaire d’actifs alternatifs de premier plan en Espagne ; il investit dans le capital-risque en phase de démarrage, le capital-risque de croissance, la dette à risque, les actions stratégiques dans des sociétés cotées, les infrastructures et le capital-investissement privé. Il fournit des solutions de financement aux entreprises tout au long de leur cycle de vie. Fondée en 2008, Inveready compte sur 200 sociétés actives et plus d’un milliard d’euros d’actifs sous gestion. Inveready investit dans des entreprises du secteur des sciences de la vie depuis 2008. Les investissements notables dans ce secteur sont Atrys Health (cotée sur le marché espagnol), EDESA Biotech (cotée au Nasdaq), AVX Pharma (vendue à Aerie Biotech) et PaloBiofarma (accord de licence avec Novartis). Le siège social de la société se situe à San Sebastian et elle possède d’autres bureaux à Barcelone et Madrid. La société a été reconnue à plusieurs reprises par l’ASCRI et Preqin pour le rendement de ses fonds et de ses transactions (Pour plus d’informations, veuillez consulter le site www.inveready.com).

Mag Nina Roth, MAS
nina.roth@aop-health.com

AOP Health
Besoins. Science. Confiance.

AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Membre du groupe AOP Health

Leopold-Ungar-Platz 2, 1190 Vienne, Autriche
aop-health.com

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Zenas BioPharma Obtains IND Approval in China for Phase 1/2 Study of ZB001 for the Treatment of Thyroid Eye Disease  

WALTHAM, Mass and SHANGHAI, China, July 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zenas BioPharma, a global biopharmaceutical company committed to becoming a leader in the development and commercialization of immune-based therapies for patients in need around the world, announced that it has received approval of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China for the initiation of a Phase 1/2 clinical study of ZB001 for the treatment of Thyroid Eye Disease (TED). The main objective of the Phase 1/2 is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of ZB001.

TED is a debilitating vison-threatening autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and fibrosis within the orbit of the eye. With no approved therapies for TED patients in China, treatment options are limited and often involve high doses of steroids associated with serious side effects or surgical intervention. ZB001 is a differentiated humanized monoclonal antibody targeting insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) intended for the treatment of TED.

“We are proud that the IND application for ZB001 was approved by the NMPA about two months following its submission, highlighting our team’s unique ability to efficiently execute on our development programs,” said Hua Mu, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at Zenas. “We are excited to work with leading clinical experts in China to accelerate the development of ZB001 to address the significant unmet clinical need in thyroid eye disease.”

Zenas BioPharma licensed the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize ZB001 (Viridian VRDN-001) and other compounds targeting IGF-1R in non-oncology indications in the greater China area from Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (Viridian) in October 2020. After submitting an IND for VRDN-001 to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2021, Viridian initiated a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in December 2021 to evaluate proof of concept in TED patients in North America and released encouraging interim healthy volunteer data suggesting robust activity with excellent safety and tolerability of the candidate product.

About Zenas BioPharma

Zenas BioPharma is a global biopharmaceutical company based in the USA and China committed to becoming a leader in the development and commercialization of immune-based therapies for patients in the US, China and around the world. Zenas is rapidly advancing a deep pipeline of innovative therapeutics that continues to grow through our successful business development strategy. Our experienced leadership team and network of business partners drive operational excellence to deliver potentially transformative therapies to improve the lives of those facing autoimmune and rare diseases. For more information about Zenas BioPharma, please visit www.zenasbio.com and follow us on Twitter at @ZenasBioPharma and LinkedIn.

Investor and Media Contact:
Joe Farmer
Zenas BioPharma
IR@zenasbio.com

Ayman al-Zawahiri: From Cairo Physician to Terrorist Leader

Ayman al-Zawahiri succeeded Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida leader after years as its main organizer and strategist, but his lack of charisma and competition from rival militants Islamic State hobbled his ability to inspire spectacular attacks on the West.

Al-Zawahiri, 71, was killed over the weekend in a U.S. drone strike, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday.

He had watched in dismay as al-Qaida was effectively sidelined by the 2010-11 Arab revolts, launched mainly by middle-class activists and intellectuals opposed to decades of autocracy.

In the years following bin Laden’s death, U.S. airstrikes killed a succession of al-Zawahiri’s deputies, weakening the veteran Egyptian militant’s ability to coordinate globally.

Despite a reputation as an inflexible and combative personality, al-Zawahiri managed to nurture loosely affiliated groups around the world that grew to wage devastating local insurgencies, some of them rooted in turmoil arising from the Arab Spring. The violence destabilized a number of countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

But al-Qaida’s days as the centrally directed, hierarchical network of plotters that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, were long gone. Instead, militancy returned to its roots in local-level conflicts, driven by a mix of local grievances and incitement by transnational jihadi networks using social media.

Al-Zawahiri’s origins in Islamist militancy went back decades.

The first time the world heard of him was when he stood in a courtroom cage after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

“We have sacrificed, and we are still ready for more sacrifices until the victory of Islam,” shouted al-Zawahiri, wearing a white robe, as fellow defendants enraged by Sadat’s peace treaty with Israel chanted slogans.

Al-Zawahiri served a three-year jail term for illegal arms possession but was acquitted of the main charges.

A trained surgeon — one of his pseudonyms was The Doctor — al-Zawahiri went to Pakistan on his release, where he worked with the Red Crescent treating Islamist mujahedeen guerrillas wounded in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces.

During that period, he became acquainted with bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who had joined the Afghan resistance.

Taking over the leadership of Islamic Jihad in Egypt in 1993, al-Zawahiri was a leading figure in a campaign in the mid-1990s to overthrow the government and set up a purist Islamic state. More than 1,200 Egyptians were killed.

Egyptian authorities mounted a crackdown on Islamic Jihad after an assassination attempt on President Hosni Mubarak in June 1995 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The graying, white-turbaned al-Zawahiri responded by ordering a 1995 attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. Two cars filled with explosives rammed through the compound’s gates, killing 16 people.

In 1999, an Egyptian military court sentenced al-Zawahiri to death in absentia. By then he was living the spartan life of a militant after helping bin Laden to form al-Qaida.

A videotape aired by Al Jazeera in 2003 showed the two men walking on a rocky mountainside — an image that Western intelligence hoped would provide clues on their whereabouts.

Threats of global jihad

For years al-Zawahiri was believed to be hiding along the forbidding border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He assumed leadership of al-Qaida in 2011 after U.S. Navy Seals killed bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan. Since then, he repeatedly called for global jihad, with an AK-47 as his side during video messages.

In a eulogy for bin Laden, al-Zawahiri promised to pursue attacks on the West, recalling the Saudi-born militant’s threat that “you will not dream of security until we live it as a reality and until you leave the lands of the Muslims.”

As it turned out, the emergence of the even more hardline Islamic State group in 2014-2019 in Iraq and Syria drew as much, if not more, attention from Western counter-terrorism authorities.

Al-Zawahiri often tried to stir passions among Muslims by commenting online about sensitive issues such as U.S. policies in the Middle East or Israeli actions against Palestinians, but his delivery was seen as lacking bin Laden’s magnetism.

On a practical level, al-Zawahiri is believed to have been involved in some of al-Qaida’s biggest operations, helping organize the 2001 attacks, when airliners hijacked by al-Qaida were used to kill 3,000 people in the United States.

He was indicted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The FBI put a $25 million bounty on his head on its most wanted list.

Prominent family

Al-Zawahiri did not emerge from Cairo’s slums, like others drawn to militant groups who promised a noble cause. Born in 1951 to a prominent Cairo family, al-Zawahiri was a grandson of the grand imam of Al Azhar, one of Islam’s most important mosques.

Al-Zawahiri was raised in Cairo’s leafy Maadi suburb, a place favored by expatriates from the Western nations he railed against. The son of a pharmacology professor, al-Zawahiri first embraced Islamic fundamentalism at the age of 15.

He was inspired by the revolutionary ideas of Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb, an Islamist executed in 1966 on charges of trying to overthrow the state.

People who studied with al-Zawahiri at Cairo University’s Faculty of Medicine in the 1970s describe a lively young man who went to the cinema, listened to music and joked with friends.

“When he came out of prison, he was a completely different person,” said a doctor who studied with al-Zawahiri and declined to be named.

In the courtroom cage after the assassination of Sadat at a military parade, al-Zawahiri addressed the international press, saying militants had suffered from severe torture including whippings and attacks by wild dogs in prison.

“They arrested the wives, the mothers, the fathers, the sisters and the sons in a trial to put the psychological pressure on these innocent prisoners,” he said, firing up a wild-eyed man beside him and other militants.

Fellow prisoners said those conditions further radicalized al-Zawahiri and set him on his path to global jihad.

Source: Voice of America

Biden Confirms US Killed al-Qaida Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri

President Joe Biden said Monday that a U.S. missile strike over the weekend has killed the leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.

For the past decade, al-Zawahiri headed al-Qaida, the Islamist terror group that spawned franchises around the world after the stunning attacks on U.S. soil on September 11, 2001.

“Now, justice has been delivered,” Biden said Monday night. “And this terrorist leader is no more.” He added: “We make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan shortly after the September 11 attacks, and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was the prime target. U.S. forces killed him in Pakistan in 2011.

Al-Zawahiri, born in Egypt to a wealthy family and trained as a surgeon, took over the terror group in 2011. Before that, he was said to be bin Laden’s personal doctor.

The confirmation of his death came more than an hour after the Taliban rulers in Kabul said a missile attack on Sunday against a residential compound in the Afghan capital was the work of an American drone.

Senior White House officials told reporters Monday night that the operation targeted a house in Kabul with an unmanned aerial vehicle, with no U.S. personnel on the ground. Administration officials also said they concluded with “high confidence” that only al-Zawahiri was killed, and that they were aware that senior members of the Taliban’s Haqqani network knew he was in Afghanistan. Officials said they did not alert the Taliban ahead of the strike.

A senior administration official said al-Zawahiri “continued to provide strategic direction to al-Qaida affiliates worldwide, calling for attacks on the United States.”

The Taliban were quick to share their ire.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns this attack on whatever the pretext,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using the official name for the Taliban government.

He denounced the strike as a “blatant violation of international principles and the Doha agreement,” referring to the 2020 talks that Taliban leaders held with the U.S. and Western leaders in Qatar over the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops the subsequent year.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on August 15 as the U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew and the Western-backed government in Kabul as well as its security forces collapsed in the face of the stunning nationwide Taliban assault.

U.S. officials have been in contact with Pakistani leaders to seek an “over-the-horizon” facility to conduct counterterrorism operations in landlocked Afghanistan after American troops left the country and the Taliban took over.

The U.S.-led military coalition invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and dislodged the then-Taliban government in Kabul to punish it for harboring the al-Qaida terror network. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri escaped the international military action.

The U.S.-Taliban agreement also required the Islamist group not to allow any terrorist organization, including al-Qaida, to pose a threat to the security of the United States and other countries from Afghan soil.

But recent United Nations assessments suggested that al-Qaida, boosted by leadership stability and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, appeared to be positioning itself to once again be seen as the world’s preeminent terror group and as the greatest long-term threat to the West.

Intelligence shared by United Nations member states and published in a new report earlier this month found al-Qaida was enjoying a degree of freedom under Taliban rule, allowing its leadership to communicate more often and more easily with affiliates and followers. The report further concluded that al-Zawahiri, long rumored to be in ill health or dying, was “alive and communicating freely.”

The U.N. report similarly cautions that while al-Qaida may be better positioned, it is likely to refrain from launching external attacks in order to not embarrass Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and because the al-Qaida core still lacks “an external operational capability.”

Analyst Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said it is important for the U.S. to cut out terror groups at their roots.

“The goal is to keep pressure on terrorists over there so they don’t have the ability to kill us here,” he said. “Every policy decision in Washington should be judged, at least in part, by that metric.”

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz praised the operation.

“This is an important accomplishment,” the Texas senator said in a statement. “All Americans will breathe easier today knowing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, has been eliminated. This strike should be a message to terrorists near and far: if you conspire to kill Americans, we will find and kill you.”

Biden said the killing could lead to a new era.

“Now we have eliminated the emir of al-Qaida,” he said. “He will never again – never again – allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he’s gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens. You know, it can’t be a launching pad against the United States. We’re going to see to it that won’t happen.”

Meanwhile in recent years, al-Qaida has continued to expand, launching violent affiliate groups in the Middle East, West and East Africa, and South Asia.

Source: Voice of America