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Aiman al-Zawahiri: Al-Qaeda's chief ideologue took over the leadership of the terrorist organization after the death of Osama bin Laden
Photo: Anonymous / dpa
It has been more than 20 years since terrorists from the al-Qaeda network flew two planes into the World Trade Center, killing thousands and antagonizing the United States.
The targeted killing of al-Qaeda leader Aiman al-Zawahiri now shows that US revenge on the organization may have receded into the background, but it has not been forgotten.
Based on background talks with high-ranking US officials, the British broadcaster BBC has reconstructed how US spies discovered and killed Sawahiri in Kabul – a year after their troops withdrew.
The report said that as early as April, CIA officers notified Biden's advisers, and then the president himself, of the identification of a support network for the al-Qaeda leader and his family.
Intelligence information was supposed to show that Sawahiri lived in the wealthy Sherpur district of Kabul.
A year ago, this was still home to foreign embassies, but now high-ranking Taliban officials have apparently settled in the area.
The spies found out about Sawahiri's wife - despite attempts to deceive
According to the BBC, US spies observed Zawahiri's home and also discovered a woman who they identified as his wife.
She is said to have tried to conceal her husband's whereabouts - but she ultimately did not succeed.
According to the report, the US secret services observed that, unlike his wife, Sawahiri never left the house, but was regularly on the balcony.
On July 1, Biden reportedly invited senior officials, including the director of the CIA and the director of National Security, to the White House.
Together they bent over a CIA-built model of Zawahiri's home and discussed how the risks of such an operation could be minimized.
After that, the president is said to have flown to the Camp David country estate.
A legal team, meanwhile, is said to have reviewed the legality of an attack and concluded that Zawahiri was a legitimate target because of "his continued leadership role in al-Qaeda and his involvement in and operational support for al-Qaeda attacks," the BBC writes.
On July 25, Biden reportedly authorized the attack.
At 6:18 a.m. local time, two Hellfire missiles fired from a drone struck the balcony of Zawahiri's home, killing the al-Qaeda leader.
According to the secret service, members of his family were unharmed.
The Taliban apparently wanted to cover up the killing
The Taliban said on local broadcaster Tolo that the rockets had hit an empty house.
The Biden administration, however, announced that shortly after the attack, fighters from the Haqqani network, an extremely violent wing of the Taliban, chased Zawahiri's family from the scene and tried to cover up his presence.
When a BBC reporter reached the building on Monday morning, he was pushed away by the Taliban, threatened with guns and told there was "nothing to see," the report said.
US officials said that "several intelligence pieces" had confirmed Zawahiri's death, but stressed that there were no American personnel on the ground in Kabul.
What happened to his body remains unclear.
According to the BBC, the US government said no effort was made to recover the body.
After the assassination attempt on Osama Bin Laden, the United States dumped his body in the sea so that his grave could not become a place of pilgrimage for Islamists.
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