Despite a $25 million US bounty on his head, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri moved into a house in Kabul where he would frequently be seen in the open, on his balcony. This was despite the fact that the Taliban had recently taken control of Afghanistan.
Ayman al-Zawahiri
The heir to Osama bin Laden and one of the 9/11 attack planners, however, remained a target for the US government, who had not given up on him.
President Joe Biden announced on Monday that after years of hunting him down, US military personnel launched two Hellfire missiles from a drone hovering above the Afghan capital, striking Zawahiri’s hideout and killing him.
An operation that was as meticulously planned as the one that killed bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout in 2011 was described by US officials.
It was not unexpected that the violent jihadist group’s leader was in Afghanistan because, according to analysts, Al-Qaeda has felt more at home since the hard-line Islamist Taliban reclaimed power in August.
Finding him was challenging, though.
According to a senior administration official, “the US government has been aware of a network that we assessed supported Zawahiri for a number of years.”
But US intelligence didn’t learn of his family’s relocation to the Afghan capital until this year, when they received information from his wife, his daughter, and her offspring.
According to the official, they were cautious and used “long-standing terrorist tradecraft” to avoid being traced to the al-Qaeda leader.
But Zawahiri eventually arrived and stayed.
The official said, “We identified Zawahiri on multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony.
Throughout May and June, an attack strategy was created. In order to understand the family’s pattern of life, the United States continuously observed the multi-story house — though the official would not specify how.
detailed model of a safe house
To reduce the risk to bystanders, they examined the home’s construction in order to hit Zawahiri without endangering the stability of the structure.
Defense and intelligence officials completed the plan in June, and they used a detailed model of the White House to present it to Biden on July 1. This was done before the raid on bin Laden’s hideout.
According to the official, Biden inquired in-depth about the building, weather conditions, and the risk to civilians.
Finally, on July 25, while still suffering from a case of COVID-19, Biden made the choice.
The final briefing was attended by important cabinet members, echoing the White House meeting on April 28, 2011, when President Barack Obama decided to send US special operations forces into Pakistan to capture bin Laden.
Biden, who was vice president at the time, expressed uncertainty. He later recalled that there was a high likelihood that something would go wrong, that bin Laden had not been positively identified, and that relations with Pakistan might suffer.
However, Zawahiri was easily identifiable, no US troops would enter the country, and relations with the Taliban were minimal.
At the conclusion of the discussion on the 25th, Biden asked each participant for their opinion, just as Obama had done 11 years earlier.
According to the official, “all strongly recommended approval of this target,” and Biden approved it.
The attack was carried out by a US drone that fired two precisely guided Hellfire missiles at 6:18am on Sunday, Kabul time.
The official claimed that Zawahiri was “killed on the balcony.”
The missiles don’t seem to have been regular Hellfires, which could have destroyed the house with their high explosives.
A major setback for Al-Qaeda
According to apparent photos of the structure, only a few windows on one floor were damaged.
That suggests the use of the R9X, a non-explosive variant of the Hellfire that rips apart its target with a series of knife-like blades deployed from its fuselage while leaving nearby people and property unharmed.
US forces have killed other jihadist group leaders with the infamous “flying ginsu” missile at least six times without harming innocent bystanders.
Although the official withheld further information, she expressed her strong conviction that Zawahiri had been killed and no one else had been harmed.
According to him, Zawahiri’s family members were present in other areas of the safe house at the time of the attack and were purposefully not targeted. They were also unharmed.
The attack “deals a significant blow to Al-Qaeda and will degrade the group’s ability to operate,” the official claimed.
The official declared, “As President Biden has repeatedly stated, we will not permit Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists who might harm Americans.”
