The United States eliminated Aiman ??al-Zawahiri, the head of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. A new type of rocket is said to have been used in the targeted attack: The “Hellfire R9X” does not kill with an explosion, but with knife-like blades.
He was one of the masterminds behind the attacks of September 11, 2001 and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world: the United States killed al-Qaeda boss Aiman ??al-Zawahiri in the Afghan capital Kabul with what appeared to be a new type of missile shot down by a drone. “Justice has been served and this terrorist leader is no longer alive,” US President Joe Biden said in a televised address. It is the most important strike against al Qaeda since the killing of its previous leader, Osama bin Laden, 11 years ago.
“The mission was a success,” said Biden. None of al-Zawahiri’s relatives were injured, “and there were no civilian casualties.” According to a US official, the 71-year-old was killed by two Hellfire missiles fired from a drone early Sunday morning on the balcony of a house in Kabul. According to experts, this should be a new kind of missile of this type, designed to minimize the risk of killing bystanders.
Images that appear to show Al-Zawahiri’s safe house in Kabul’s wealthy Sherpur neighborhood after the attack show only damage to a few windows on the upper floor; the rest of the building appears intact. This points to the use of Hellfire missiles of the type R9X: these missiles do not explode on impact, but extend knife-like blades and shred their target. People nearby remain unharmed. The missiles, named “Flying Ginsu” after a popular kitchen knife brand, had previously been used by the United States in isolated cases to specifically kill other jihadist leaders.
According to Biden, the US intelligence services tracked down the former deputy of al-Qaeda founder bin Laden earlier this year. He had moved “to downtown Kabul” to live with his family again. The US President stressed that he had approved a “precision strike” against the al Qaeda leader and gave the final green light a week ago.
Al-Zawahiri assumed leadership of al-Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in May 2011. The Egyptian-born doctor didn’t have bin Laden’s charisma but was known for his analytical skills.
Al-Zawahiri was among the signatories to the 1998 declaration in which bin Laden called for attacks against US citizens. He was credited with masterminding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people. The US government had put a $25 million bounty on his head.
After the terrorist attacks in autumn 2011, the USA and NATO allies invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban regime, which had sheltered al-Qaeda. The operation to kill al-Zawahiri was carried out almost a year after the US and its western allies withdrew troops from Afghanistan. In the course of the withdrawal, the radical Islamic Taliban seized power in Afghanistan again and inflicted a great shame on the West.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the Taliban of “grossly violating” the 2020 Doha Agreement by taking in al-Zawahiri. The agreement concluded under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Taliban had promised, among other things, a break with al-Qaeda.
According to a US official, senior figures in the Hakkani network, a sub-group of the Taliban feared for its brutal attacks, were aware of al-Zawahiri’s stay in Kabul. Your boss Siradschuddin Hakkani is now interior minister in Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Mujahid accused Washington of violating the Doha Agreement. Actions like the drone attack were “against the interests of the United States, Afghanistan and the region” and repeated “the failed experiences of the past 20 years,” he said.
