The operation that killed the Egyptian leader of al Qaeda at dawn on Sunday Ayman al Zawahiriin his home in Kabul he had to overcome three major obstacles and it was a truly significant success of its kind.
The first obstacle is that the last drone bombing by the Americans in the Afghan capital had been a disaster in all respects. In August 2021, two days after the Islamic State attack that killed nearly two hundred Afghans and fourteen US Marines at Kabul International Airport, US intelligence became convinced that another bomber was loading some large jerry cans into his car. they contained explosives in a courtyard in the Afghan capital to launch again at the American soldiers and ordered a drone to hit the house to stop the attack.
The man was not a bomber, there was water inside the canisters and American missiles killed ten civilians, among them seven children. For this reason, the American newspapers today speak of a very careful surveillance operation that lasted months, to make sure that the head of al Qaeda really was in the house. The US chain of command was notified of al Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul in early April, so surveillance went on for four months – even, most likely, to study the al Qaeda leader and see what connections he had.
Afghanistan, the plot that brought the head of al Qaeda to the heart of the Taliban capital
by Daniele Raineri
The target undoubtedly helped those who kept an eye on his hiding place because every morning in the early morning he looked out on the balcony of the villa, surrounded by a wall with barbed wire to keep the curious away. The second obstacle is that the CIA no longer has a permanent presence in Afghanistan, as it did before its withdrawal in August 2021. It has had to rebuild a network of local agents who work with enormous risks and must get information out. – it is a level of difficulty more than when American intelligence had bases scattered throughout the country and American operators.
The third obstacle is that drones can no longer strike with a few minutes’ notice because they no longer take off from Afghanistan. They take off from Qatar and then take nine hours of flight to get over Kabul and then they have a reduced range, they can’t stay in place very long – and in fact they are called “over the horizon” operations, because now they come from beyond the horizon. For this the drones must coordinate perfectly with what is happening on the ground – in this case with Zawahiri looking out on the balcony. According to two sources from the Biden Administration, the Americans used two missiles of the Hellfire R9X type, nicknamed “Ninja” because it does not explode but is equipped with an inert 45 kilogram metal warhead and large metal blades that increase its surface area. ‘impact. It kills the target because it swoops over them like a hammer blow and in this way minimizes the risk of killing civilians around.
Killing of Al Zawahiri, the embarrassment of the Taliban who could not fail to know
by Barbara Schiavulli
This missile has already been used against terrorist leaders in Syria traveling in cars, which are certainly a closed and clearer target to hit – the images later show a hole in the roof, testifying to the limited effect of the weapon. In this case, however, the driver of the drone hit Zawahiri while he was on or near the balcony. The images coming from Kabul show a broken window where instead one would expect a building reduced to a pile of rubble. According to initial reports, Zawahiri’s family has not been touched, but confirmations are expected. For this reason, from a technical point of view, the raid was a very significant success.