Ayman al-Zawahiri death: How one HABIT of al Qaeda chief made him a sitting duck for CIA drone strike
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had been a prime target of various presidential administrations after the Egyptian doctor turned terrorist helped mastermind 9/11. The US announced on Monday, August 1, that after 21 years of search, one of the world's most wanted men had been killed using a precise drone strike in Kabul.
The CIA had tracked the jihadist chief to a safe house in Kabul after he moved his wife, her daughter, and their children into a safe house in an affluent suburb of the Afghan capital. Following the attack, a security official told reporters that the Egyptian jihadist's consistent ''pattern of life'' made him an easy target. His daily routine consisted of periods when he would ''linger'' on a balcony in his home overlooking the city. He grew particularly fond of stepping out onto the balcony after morning prayers to watch the sun rise over Kabul.
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According to a US official who briefed reporters on Monday, August 1, the target's regular activity allowed intelligence agents, presumably the CIA, to piece together what they called the target's "pattern of life." This allowed them to launch a "tailored airstrike" involving two Hellfire missiles fired from a Reaper drone, which are said to have struck the balcony with Zawahiri on it at 6.18 am on Sunday, July 31.
The drone strike was the outcome of a decades-long chase for the Egyptian surgeon, who had a $25 million reward on his head by the time he was killed. Zawahiri, 71, was found liable not only for his role as Bin Laden's second in command on 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people, but also for several other lethal attacks, including the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors.
The mission to track down the al-Qaeda leader was launched in early April, according to US officials, when intelligence sources detected signs that Zawahiri and his family had left their mountain hideaways and relocated to Kabul. Zawahiri and his wife, along with their daughter and grandchildren, had moved into the Sherpur house following the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, with the support of the Haqqani Taliban network. At one point, al-Zawahiri was even suspected to be living in Karachi, the Pakistani capital.
An official told the Times, ''We identified Zawahiri on multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony where he was ultimately struck". According to the Times report, Zawahiri had become clumsy, and despite not leaving his house, he did not change his routine. Zawahiri was killed by two R9X ''ninja'' Hellfire missiles fired from a CIA MQ-9 Reaper drone circling over Kabul at 6:18 am on Sunday, August 1. Following his death, the dead al-Qaeda leader's family was relocated. They were in another part of the house when the strike occurred. According to the Washington Post, satellites and a CIA ground team were able to successfully ascertain the death of al-Zawahiri in the aftermath of the strike.
''There was nobody on the ground in uniform when this strike occurred,'' said Biden national security advisor Jake O'Sullivan on ABC's ''Good Morning America'' on Tuesday, August 2. He also stated that the administration is ''in direct communication with the Taliban on this, and I'm not going to telegraph our next moves, but the Taliban are well aware that the United States will defend its interests.''