al-Qaeda boss killed

Speculation has grown that the U.S. used a highly secretive Hellfire missile nicknamed the 'knife bomb' to kill Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri.

That missile is a very accurate weapon that strikes in a very small area, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss counter-terrorism operations. As a result, the U.S. so far has not provided Hellfire missiles or drones that could fire them. Less than a year ago, a U.S. drone strike using a more conventional Hellfire missile struck a white Toyota Corolla sedan in a Kabul neighborhood and killed 10 civilians around and near the car, including seven children. More than 100,000 Hellfire missiles have been sold to the U.S. and other countries, according to Ryan Brobst, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank. As U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, efforts against a diminished Al Qaeda are in flux. In this case, the CIA opted for a drone strike. Unlike other models of the Hellfire, the R9X doesn’t carry an explosive payload. The U.S. had multiple options for the attack. For a year, U.S. officials have been saying that taking out a terrorist threat in Afghanistan with no American troops on the ground would be difficult but not impossible. Although officials have not publicly confirmed which variant of the Hellfire was used, experts and others familiar with counter-terrorism operations said a likely option was the highly secretive Hellfire R9X — known by various nicknames, including the “knife bomb” or the “flying Ginsu.” “One of their utilities is in opening up vehicles and other obstructions to get to the target without having to use an explosive warhead,” he said. Other high-profile airstrikes in the past had inadvertently killed innocent civilians.

An eye surgeon who helped found the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group, he took over the leadership of al-Qaeda following the killing by US forces of Osama ...

During the mass trial, Zawahiri emerged as a leader of the defendants and was filmed telling the court: "We are Muslims who believe in our religion. Six months later, two simultaneous attacks destroyed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 223 people. The war has only just begun." Zawahiri took over the leadership of Egyptian Islamic Jihad after it re-emerged in 1993, and was a key figure behind a series of attacks by the group on Egyptian government ministers, including the Prime Minister, Atif Sidqi. According to fellow Islamist prisoners, Zawahiri was regularly tortured and beaten by the authorities during his time in jail in Egypt, an experience which is said to have transformed him into a fanatical and violent extremist. According to fellow Islamist prisoners, Zawahiri was regularly tortured and beaten by the authorities during his time in jail in Egypt, an experience which is said to have transformed him into a fanatical and violent extremist.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan over the weekend. For years, al-Zawahiri was Osama Bin ...

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President Joe Biden announced that a U.S. counterterrorism operation over the weekend in Afghanistan killed top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Two Hellfire missiles were fired at al-Zawahiri while he was on the balcony of the safe house, the official said, adding that no civilians or relatives of al-Zawahiri were killed. Intelligence officials created a model of al-Zawahiri’s safe house and used it to brief Biden about the risk to civilians, the senior administration official added. Asked whether Biden would have tolerated even a few civilian casualties, an administration official said there was no reason to expect any. The Taliban were not warned ahead of the strike, the Biden administration official said Monday, adding that al-Zawahiri’s presence in the country was a violation of the Doha Agreement, which the U.S. and the Taliban signed in 2020. As U.S. intelligence officials monitored them, they learned al-Zawahiri had joined his family. In his address Monday evening, Biden described al-Zawahiri as a “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks and said he also played a key role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The president wanted to understand more about the layout of safe house, officials said, and how a strike on al-Zawahiri inside Afghanistan might affect the U.S. relationship with Taliban. Biden specifically pressed them about how a strike inside the country could affect his administration’s effort to relocate Afghans who had helped the U.S. during the Afghanistan war. Biden was shown the model of the safe house during a Situation Room meeting July 1 that included CIA Director William Burns, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines and Christine Abizaid, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. The strike was so precise that it killed al-Zawahiri on a balcony without harming family members elsewhere in the house, the official said. “Justice has been delivered. Al-Zawahiri was the second in command to Osama bin Laden during the 9/11 attacks, and took over as Al Qaeda leader in 2011 after U.S. forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan. In that role, al-Zawahiri continued to call for attacks against the U.S. and its allies. In 2001, al-Zawahiri escaped U.S. forces when they invaded Afghanistan and toppled the previous Taliban government, which had refused to hand over bin Laden in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

The targeted killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri sent shock waves throughout the U.S. national security community Monday evening.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 provided al Qaeda with a unique opportunity to rebound. A recent United Nations report discussing al Qaeda succession suggested that further down on the depth chart are Yazid Mebrak and Ahmed Diriye, leaders of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Shabab, respectively. Moreover, another high-ranking al Qaeda leader, Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was killed in Iran in a 2020 attack believed to be carried out by Israeli commandos. Maghrebi is also Zawahiri’s son-in-law and a senior leader with the jihadi credentials—including having served as al Qaeda’s general manager since 2012 as well as the head of its media arm, al-Sahab—that would be a good fit for the role of emir. He navigated al Qaeda through this turbulent period and managed to mostly keep the group coherent during the massive challenge posed by the rise of the Islamic State—although it was under his leadership that al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate broke off and morphed into the Islamic State in the first place. Al Qaeda, in turn, needs the Taliban to maintain a sanctuary from which it can continue rebuilding its network and external attack capabilities. However, Adel is believed to be living in Iran under semi-house arrest, making him more compromised than some al Qaeda leaders would care to admit. Al Qaeda, in turn, needs the Taliban to maintain a sanctuary from which it can continue rebuilding its network and external attack capabilities. Under that agreement, the Taliban pledged not to let Afghanistan become a haven for international terrorists. The targeted killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri sent shock waves throughout the U.S. national security community Monday evening. Under that agreement, the Taliban pledged not to let Afghanistan become a haven for international terrorists. The targeted killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri sent shock waves throughout the U.S. national security community Monday evening.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed via a drone strike on the balcony of his four-storey safehouse. Now terrorist leaders are fleeing Kabul ...

The Biden administration was widely criticised for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 2021. May they find some small solace in the knowledge that he cannot cause more grief through his acts of terror," Mr Albanese said on Tuesday. He was living in the Sherpur area, a wealthy part of Kabul known for its extravagant villas. "The leadership of these terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, are in the country," he said. "In revenge, they could attack US interests and US allies in the region, in Afghanistan and beyond." "And it has historical significance because many of the foreign fighters during the first [rule of the Taliban], including Al Qaeda leaders, were living there in the 1990s.

President Biden said the death of Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden, means Afghanistan can no longer “become a terrorist safe haven.”

He remained as a figurehead but failed to prevent the splintering of the Islamist movement in Syria and other conflict zones after 2011. Al-Qaeda hasn’t carried out any major terrorist attacks in the United States or Europe in recent years, following bombings that killed 52 people in London in 2005. Some attackers were inspired by al-Qaeda, such as a Saudi military trainee who killed three American sailors at a U.S. base in Florida in December 2019. A United Nations report in July estimated there were up to 400 al-Qaeda fighters remaining in Afghanistan. Security experts say the operation demonstrates that the United States is still able to carry out precision strikes in Afghanistan after last year’s withdrawal of troops on the ground. Today, though, the group is splintered, with branches and affiliates spanning the globe from West Africa to India. The question remains whether those groups will focus on local conflicts or coalesce for more global ambitions. Zawahiri merged his own Egyptian militant group with al-Qaeda in the 1990s. The strike is the latest in a string of successful U.S. operations against al-Qaeda and Islamic State leaders. Analysts say that in the past, al-Qaeda has adjusted to the loss of leaders, with new figures emerging in their place. In his later years, Zawahiri largely shied from public view, presiding over al-Qaeda at a time of decline, with most of the group’s founding figures dead or in hiding. When the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 1996, it gave al-Qaeda the sanctuary that enabled it to run training camps and plot attacks, including 9/11. President Biden said in an address to the nation Monday that Zawahiri’s death — after he evaded capture for decades — sent a clear message: “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The Taliban are investigating a U.S. "claim" that al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, a Taliban official said on ...

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