US kills al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in drone strike in Afghanistan

[lost in melb.]

(CNN)The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, President Joe Biden said Monday in a speech from the White House.

"I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all," Biden said.
Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden's personal physician.

Zawahiri was sheltering in downtown Kabul to reunite with his family, Biden said, and was killed in what a senior administration official described as "a precise tailored airstrike" using two Hellfire missiles. The drone strike was conducted at 9:48 p.m. ET on Saturday was authorized by Biden following weeks of meetings with his Cabinet and key advisers, the official said on Monday, adding that no American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time of the strike.

Senior Haqqani Taliban figures were aware of Zawahiri's presence in the area, the official said, in "clear violation of the Doha agreement," and even took steps to conceal his presence after Saturday's successful strike, restricting access to the safe house and rapidly relocating members of his family, including his daughter and her children, who were intentionally not targeted during the strike and remained unharmed. The US did not alert Taliban officials ahead of Saturday's strike

....


https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/01/politics/joe-biden-counter-terrorism/index.html

:usa:

[DemonGeminiX]

Yay. :usa:

Too bad he announced years ago that Al Qaeda was no longer a serious threat. It suspiciously comes at a time when his approval rating is abysmal and his party is going to take a serious ass-beating in November.

Ain't nothing gonna save you, Joe.

[lost in melb.]

Who needs enemies when you've got fellow Americans :tup:

[DemonGeminiX]

Who needs enemies when you've got fellow Americans :tup:

Inflation, recession, cost of goods, cost of gas, raising our taxes, reckless government spending on stupid useless shit, increasing crime rates in the cities, and criminals are not getting the punishment they deserve. All because of the Democrats. No one is going to forget it.

[DemonGeminiX]

... and for the record, our #1 enemy is China, and all Joe is doing is kissing Xi's dirty commie ass.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I could swear I had heard he died a while back

[DemonGeminiX]

I could swear I had heard he died a while back

They were saying the same thing about Bin Laden up until we got the actionable intelligence and went in and got him.

[lost in melb.]

Inflation, recession, cost of goods, cost of gas, raising our taxes, reckless government spending on stupid useless shit, increasing crime rates in the cities, and criminals are not getting the punishment they deserve. All because of the Democrats. No one is going to forget it.

And Trump, the most fiscally irresponsible President since WW2 balloned the deficit more in four years than his predecessors did in eight.

Thanks Trump! :rock:

[DemonGeminiX]

And Trump, the most fiscally irresponsible President since WW2 balloned the deficit more in four years than his predecessors did in eight.

Thanks Trump! :rock:

Given the economic stimulus he had to sign into law because of the WuFlu, I'd say the thanks belongs to the Chinese.

[perrhaps]

Given the economic stimulus he had to sign into law because of the WuFlu, I'd say the thanks belongs to the Chinese.

For his first three years, Trump can only blame himself.

The next ten people you see on the street would beat Trump if they ran against him for President. Or, to put it more accurately, Trump wpuld beat himself again.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Brie Stimson | Fox News


https://i.imgur.com/prl3Ioyh.jpg

After spending months building a "pattern of life" for al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri at his secure home in an affluent neighborhood in Kabul, the CIA noticed he was often alone on his balcony in the morning.

U.S. intelligence officials located al-Zawahri decades after he had been Usama bin Laden’s deputy during the 9/11 attacks. He was also bin Laden’s successor after the leader was killed by a Navy SEAL team in 2011.

A senior Biden administration official said the government identified al-Zawahri on "multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony, where he was ultimately struck" in a precision drone attack. He was the only one killed, President Biden said.

Biden said he "authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield once and for all" on July 25.

The terrorist often went out on the balcony in the early morning and he was always alone, making it an ideal opportunity to eliminate him while minimizing the risk for his family who CIA officials determined also lived in the house.

The U.S. surveillance showed the al-Zawahri never seemed to leave the house where his wife, daughter and grandchildren were also apparently living.

https://i.imgur.com/v2AwQQ2.png

When Biden was briefed on al-Zawahri’s location, he told officials to do everything possible to lower the possibility of killing his family members or other civilians - or damaging the integrity of the home.

https://i.imgur.com/9MpKKL7.png

Biden announced on Monday that al-Zawahri had been killed in a "successful" counterterrorism operation last Saturday at 6:18 a.m. in Kabul.

He explained that al-Zawahri "coordinated al Qaeda's branches all around the world" since bin Laden's death in 2011, including "setting priorities for providing operational guidance that call for and inspire attacks against U.S. targets."

In recent weeks he had made videos calling for violence, including telling followers to "attack the United States and our allies."

Fox News' Brooke Singman, Bret Baier and Peter Doocey contributed to this report.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Barbie Latza Nadeau, Correspondent-At-Large - The Daily Beast


https://i.imgur.com/p2sEQUk.jpeg

When Ayman al-Zawahiri, the post-Osama bin Laden leader of al Qaeda, was obliterated on the balcony of a pink house in a posh-for-Kabul district in the Afghan capital, neighbors heard a bang but did not see signs of an explosion.

A neighbor who lives nearby told Reuters that she heard a loud noise on Sunday but curiously did not see the usual chaos most Kabul residents associate with a bomb or missile attack, including smoke and fire. That has led the ballistics chattering class to presume the attack was carried out by the notorious “flying Ginsu”—which is named after the iconic super-sharp Japanese knives that were heavily advertised in the 1980s. It is pretty much exactly as brutal as it sounds, slicing through walls or the roofs of vehicles to destroy its target.

The weapon—officially called an R9X Hellfire missile—seems straight out of a James Bond brainstorming session. The missile does not carry a warhead or explosives, and instead uses kinetic energy and six devastating blades to take out its target, according to a Bellingcat review of the weapon.

The precision capability of the weapon means there is less chance of collateral damage. And in fact, there were no civilians killed in the hit on Zawahiri. The telltale sign of its use is that there is no explosion. In the case of Zawahiri, 71, only the windows of the balcony, where he was standing alone, were shattered.

The U.S. does not lay claim to keeping the Hellfire “flying Ginsu” in its arsenal, but several reports in recent years seem to show indisputable evidence that they were used in precision kills in Syria, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. This is the first suspected use in Afghanistan, according to several news reports.

The Taliban, who might have let their guard down when it came to protecting the al Qaeda chief, condemned the attack. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called it a violation of “international principles”—which may be a little rich for the terror group that has de-fingered, enslaved, and beheaded hundreds of people.

Several sources speaking to the Associated Press and Reuters say the CIA spearheaded the intelligence work that led to the attack. Pakistan’s government tweeted on Tuesday that the U.S. did not use their intelligence or territory, nor did the attack breach Pakistani airspace.

Reuters reports that Zawahiri had been living safely in the mountains until he was moved to Kabul when the Taliban took over in the wake of the swift U.S. withdrawal last year.

See story about the missile here: http://www.tehfalloutshelter.com/showthread.php?112067-The-Telltale-Traces-of-the-US-Military%92s-New-%91Bladed%92-Missile

[lost in melb.]

Incredible!

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I have never heard of that :shock: