Washington: Despite having a bounty of US$25 million on his head, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri apparently felt quite comfortable Taliban capture Afghanistan On his way to a house in Kabul where he regularly appeared in the open, on his balcony.
But the US government did not stop pursuing one of the planners of the September 11, 2001 attacks and his successor. Osama bin Laden,
After tracking him for years, the US armed forces fired two Hellfire missiles from a drone flying over the Afghan capital, triggering the attack. Zawahiri’s safe house And killing him, President Joe Biden announced on Monday.
US officials described an operation as carefully planned, which killed bin Laden at his Pakistan base in 2011.
While analysts say the leader of the violent jihadist group was in Afghanistan, it was not a surprise: After the radical Islamist Taliban regained control in August, al-Qaeda has felt more at home.
But it was still difficult to find him.
“For many years the US government has known of a network that we supported,” a senior administration official told reporters.
But in the same year US intelligence agencies learned that his family, his wife, his daughter and their children had moved to the Afghan capital.
The official said they were careful, using a “longstanding terrorist trade craft” to prevent anyone from tracking them down to the Qaeda leader.
Nevertheless, Zawahiri eventually showed up, and never left.
“We have identified Zawahiri for long stays on the balcony on several occasions,” the official said.
An attack plan developed in May and June. The United States constantly monitored the multi-storey residence in order to understand the patterns of family life – as officials would say.
He studied the construction of the house intended to kill Zawahiri without jeopardizing the structural integrity of the building in order to reduce the risk to civilians.
Defense and intelligence officials finalized the plan in June and presented Biden at the White House on July 1 using a detailed model of the residence, as had been done before the bin Laden raid.
The official said Biden asked detailed questions on the structure, weather issues and the risk to civilians.
Finally, on July 25, Biden – still ill with a bout of COVID-19 – made the decision.
This echoed the White House meeting of April 28, 2011, with key cabinet officials attending the final briefing, where President Barack Obama called for the deployment of US special operations troops to enter Pakistan and capture bin Laden. decided to.
Biden was vice president at the time, and he expressed skepticism. The risk of things going wrong was high, bin Laden was not clearly identified, and relations with Pakistan could be damaged, he later recalled.
However, with Zawahiri, no US troops would enter the country; Zawahiri had a clear identity; And relations with the Taliban were next to zero.
At the end of the discussion on the 25th, Biden – as Obama did 11 years ago – asked each participant for their thoughts.
“Everyone strongly recommended approving this target,” the official said, and Biden approved of it.
The attack involved a US drone, armed with two precision-guided Hellfire missiles, which was launched at 6.18 a.m. Kabul time on Sunday.
Zawahiri “died on the balcony,” the official said.
It appears that the missiles were not ordinary Hell’s fire whose high explosives could destroy the house.
Clear photographs of the building show that only a few windows on one floor are blown out, and the rest are intact.
This points to a possible use of the Hellfire, a non-explosive version of the R9X, which deploys a series of knife-like blades from its torso and smashes its target but kills nearby people and objects. retains.
The so-called “Flying Jinsu” missile has been used a half dozen or more times by US forces to kill other jihadist group leaders without hurting spectators.
The officer did not give details, but expressed a firm belief that Zawahiri was killed and no one else was injured.
“Zawahiri’s family members were present in other parts of the safe house at the time of the strike and they were not deliberately targeted and were not harmed,” he said.
The official said the strike is “a significant blow to al-Qaeda and will reduce the group’s ability to operate.”
“As President Biden has repeatedly said, we will not allow Afghanistan to be a safe haven for terrorists who can harm Americans,” the official said.
But the US government did not stop pursuing one of the planners of the September 11, 2001 attacks and his successor. Osama bin Laden,
After tracking him for years, the US armed forces fired two Hellfire missiles from a drone flying over the Afghan capital, triggering the attack. Zawahiri’s safe house And killing him, President Joe Biden announced on Monday.
US officials described an operation as carefully planned, which killed bin Laden at his Pakistan base in 2011.
While analysts say the leader of the violent jihadist group was in Afghanistan, it was not a surprise: After the radical Islamist Taliban regained control in August, al-Qaeda has felt more at home.
But it was still difficult to find him.
“For many years the US government has known of a network that we supported,” a senior administration official told reporters.
But in the same year US intelligence agencies learned that his family, his wife, his daughter and their children had moved to the Afghan capital.
The official said they were careful, using a “longstanding terrorist trade craft” to prevent anyone from tracking them down to the Qaeda leader.
Nevertheless, Zawahiri eventually showed up, and never left.
“We have identified Zawahiri for long stays on the balcony on several occasions,” the official said.
An attack plan developed in May and June. The United States constantly monitored the multi-storey residence in order to understand the patterns of family life – as officials would say.
He studied the construction of the house intended to kill Zawahiri without jeopardizing the structural integrity of the building in order to reduce the risk to civilians.
Defense and intelligence officials finalized the plan in June and presented Biden at the White House on July 1 using a detailed model of the residence, as had been done before the bin Laden raid.
The official said Biden asked detailed questions on the structure, weather issues and the risk to civilians.
Finally, on July 25, Biden – still ill with a bout of COVID-19 – made the decision.
This echoed the White House meeting of April 28, 2011, with key cabinet officials attending the final briefing, where President Barack Obama called for the deployment of US special operations troops to enter Pakistan and capture bin Laden. decided to.
Biden was vice president at the time, and he expressed skepticism. The risk of things going wrong was high, bin Laden was not clearly identified, and relations with Pakistan could be damaged, he later recalled.
However, with Zawahiri, no US troops would enter the country; Zawahiri had a clear identity; And relations with the Taliban were next to zero.
At the end of the discussion on the 25th, Biden – as Obama did 11 years ago – asked each participant for their thoughts.
“Everyone strongly recommended approving this target,” the official said, and Biden approved of it.
The attack involved a US drone, armed with two precision-guided Hellfire missiles, which was launched at 6.18 a.m. Kabul time on Sunday.
Zawahiri “died on the balcony,” the official said.
It appears that the missiles were not ordinary Hell’s fire whose high explosives could destroy the house.
Clear photographs of the building show that only a few windows on one floor are blown out, and the rest are intact.
This points to a possible use of the Hellfire, a non-explosive version of the R9X, which deploys a series of knife-like blades from its torso and smashes its target but kills nearby people and objects. retains.
The so-called “Flying Jinsu” missile has been used a half dozen or more times by US forces to kill other jihadist group leaders without hurting spectators.
The officer did not give details, but expressed a firm belief that Zawahiri was killed and no one else was injured.
“Zawahiri’s family members were present in other parts of the safe house at the time of the strike and they were not deliberately targeted and were not harmed,” he said.
The official said the strike is “a significant blow to al-Qaeda and will reduce the group’s ability to operate.”
“As President Biden has repeatedly said, we will not allow Afghanistan to be a safe haven for terrorists who can harm Americans,” the official said.