Top Al-Qaeda Leader Al-Zawahiri Killed in US Drone Strike

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 2: The Notorious Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks along with Osama Bin Laden whom he succeeded, was killed in a US drone strike in an urban safe house in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, over the weekend, the White House announced in the wee hours of Tuesday.

He was killed by two missiles fired at his Kabul home — but pictures showed no sign of an explosion, and US officials say no one else was harmed. Members of Zawahiri’s family were present in the home, but “were purposely not targeted and were not harmed,” the official said. “We also have no indications that any other civilian was harmed in this strike,” the official added.

While it was in the air since Sunday that a top Al-Qaeda leader had been eliminated in a CIA drone strike, the official announcement about the operation was delayed until his death could be confirmed. The final announcement was left to the US president. President Joe Biden in an evening address from the White House on Monday announced that the U.S. intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The President approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday.

Al-Zawahiri and the better known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaeda. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in operation carried out by U.S. Navy Seals after a nearly decade-long hunt.

“He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens,” Biden said. “This terrorist leader is no more,” he said about Al-Zawahiri. The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war.

The strike was carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources said but neither Biden nor the White House detailed the CIA’s involvement in the strike. Biden, however, paid tribute to the U.S. intelligence community in his remarks, noting that “thanks to their extraordinary persistence and skill” the operation was a “success.”

Al-Zawahiri’s loss eliminates the figure who more than anyone shaped al-Qaeda, first as bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor. Together, he and bin Laden turned the jihadi movement’s guns to target the United States, carrying out the deadliest attack ever on American soil — the September 11 suicide hijackings.

The house Al-Zawahiri was in when he was killed was owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahiri’s death. A senior administration official who briefed reporters on the operation on condition of anonymity said “zero” U.S. personnel were in Kabul.

Over the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the U.S. targeted and splintered al-Qaeda, sending leaders into hiding. But America’s exit from Afghanistan last September gave the extremist group the opportunity to rebuild. U.S. military officials, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said al-Qaeda was trying to reconstitute in Afghanistan, where it faced limited threats from the now-ruling Taliban. Military leaders have warned that the group still aspired to attack the U.S.

The 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon made bin Laden America’s Enemy No. 1. But he likely could never have carried it out without his deputy. Bin Laden provided al-Qaeda with charisma and money, but al-Zawahiri brought tactics and organisational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells in countries around the world.

U.S. intelligence officials have been aware for years of a network helping al-Zawahiri dodge U.S. intelligence officials hunting for him, but did not have a bead on his possible location until recent months.

Earlier this year the U.S. officials learned that the terror leader’s wife, daughter and her children had relocated to a safe house in Kabul, according to the senior administration official who briefed reporters. Officials eventually learned that al-Zawahiri was also at the Kabul safe house after which the operation was carried out.

The explosion-less killing of Al-Zawahiri points to the use again by the United States of the macabre Hellfire R9X, a warhead-less missile believed equipped with six razor-like blades extending from the fuselage that slices through its target but does not explode.

Never publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon or CIA — the two US agencies known to undertake targeted assassinations of extremist leaders — the R9X first appeared in March 2017 when Al-Qaeda senior leader Abu al-Khayr al-Masri was killed by a drone strike while travelling in a car in Syria. Photos of the vehicle showed a large hole through the roof, with the car’s metal, and all of the interior, including its occupants, physically shredded. But the front and rear of the car appeared completely intact.

Up until then, Hellfire missiles — fired by drones in targeted attacks — were known for powerful explosions and often extensive collateral damage and deaths. Since 2017, a handful of other finely-targeted attacks show similar results.

Details of the mysterious weapon leaked out, and it was dubbed the “flying ginsu,” after a famous 1980s television commercial for ostensibly Japanese kitchen knives that would cut cleanly through aluminium cans and remain perfectly sharp. Also called the “ninja bomb,” the missile has become the US munition of choice for killing leaders of extremist groups while avoiding civilian casualties.

That is apparently what happened with Zawahiri. A US official told reporters that on the morning of July 31, Zawahiri was standing alone on the balcony of his Kabul residence, when a US drone launched the two Hellfires. Apparent photographs of the building show windows blown out on one floor, but the rest of the building, including windows on other floors, still in place.

Al-Zawahiri had for years tried to get into Kashmir with little or no success. However, his terror outfit has consistently threatened India, including once this year. Al Zawahiri has in the past drawn parallels between Kashmir and Palestine, and has also criticised Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia for supporting India.

The Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind was formed in 2017 in Kashmir but was finished after the terrorist Zakir Musa was eliminated. In 2014, Al Zawahiri issued his first statement on India, speaking about Islamic unity. In April this year, he issued a statement after the hijab controversy. In June, he issued the statement threatening attacks on Delhi, Mumbai, and Uttar Pradesh with suicide bombers.