Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri killed in US strike in Afghanistan It is the biggest blow to the terrorist group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.
A senior administration official told reporters that Zawahiri had been hiding for years and the operation to locate and kill him was the result of “careful, patient and persistent” work by the counter-terrorism and intelligence community.
Until the US announcement, Zawahiri was rumored to be inside the tribal area of Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official provided the following details on the operation:
For many years, the US government had been aware of a network it had assessed to support Zawahiri, and in the past year, following the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, officials were concerned about the presence of al-Qaeda in the country. Watching the signs.
This year, officials identified that Zawahiri’s family – his wife, his daughter and their children – had shifted to a safe house in Kabul and later identified Zawahiri at the same location.
Over several months, intelligence officers became more confident that they had correctly identified Zawahiri at a safe house in Kabul and began briefing senior administrative officials in early April. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan later briefed President Joe Biden.
“We were able to create a pattern of life through multiple independent sources of information to inform the operation,” the official said.
Once Zawahiri reached the safe house in Kabul, authorities were not aware of his departure and identified him on his balcony – where he was eventually killed – on several occasions, the official said.
Authorities investigated the construction and nature of the safe house and its occupants to ensure that the United States did not endanger the structural integrity of the building and without mitigating the risk to civilians and Zawahiri’s family. An operation may be launched to kill him, the official said.
In recent weeks, the president has convened meetings with key advisers and cabinet members to examine intelligence and evaluate the best course of action. On July 1, Biden was briefed about a proposed operation in the White House Situation Room by members of his cabinet, including CIA Director William Burns.
Biden asked “detailed questions about what we knew and how we knew it” and closely examined a model of a safe house that the intelligence community had built and brought to the meeting.
The official said he inquired about lighting, weather, construction materials and other factors that could affect the success of the operation. The President also requested an analysis of the possible effects of the strike in Kabul.
A tight circle of senior inter-agency lawyers examined the intelligence reporting and confirmed that Zawahiri was a legitimate target based on his continued leadership of al-Qaeda.
On July 25, the president convened his key cabinet members and advisers to receive a final briefing and discuss how the killing of Zawahiri would affect America’s relationship with the Taliban, the official said. After soliciting views from others in the room, Biden authorized “a precisely tailored airstrike” on the condition that it minimized the risk of civilian casualties.
The drone was finally attacked on July 30 at 9.48 p.m. ET (0148 GMT) with so-called “hell’s fire” missiles.
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