US intelligence had hunted al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri for many years — then spent a number of months meticulously planning his dying as soon as he was traced to Afghanistan, the place he was put up as a visitor of the ruling Taliban following the disastrous US withdrawal final yr.
The coward who co-planned the Sept. 11 assaults had turn into the world’s most wished terrorist quickly after his cohort, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a daring US raid in Might 2011 — with a $25 million bounty on his head.
Underneath 4 presidents, US intelligence operatives hunted al-Zawahiri, who was rumored variously to be in Pakistan’s tribal space or inside Afghanistan.
The CIA got here tantalizingly near probably capturing al-Zawahiri in 2003, after which killing him in 2004.
The company thought it lastly had him in its sights in 2009, solely to be tricked by a double agent who blew himself up, killing seven company staff and wounding six extra in Khost, Afghanistan.
He was lastly pinpointed earlier this yr in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, staying together with his spouse, his daughter and her youngsters in a secure home supported by the Haqqani Taliban community, officers stated.
“We had been in a position to construct a sample of life via a number of unbiased sources of data to tell the operation,” a senior administration official instructed reporters Monday.
All through that point, the terrorist appeared to by no means go away the secure home — however was noticed on “a number of events, for sustained durations of time” on the balcony the place he was in the end pulverized Sunday.
Two senior nationwide safety officers had been first briefed on the intelligence in early April, with the president being briefed by nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan shortly thereafter.
By Might and June, a small circle of officers throughout the federal government labored to vet the intelligence and devise choices for Biden, the officers stated.
Biden was then briefed on the proposed strike by his nationwide safety aides on July 1, after coming back from a five-day journey to Europe.
Officers had painstakingly constructed “a sample of life” to pin down al-Zawahiri’s actions, even constructing a scale mannequin of the secure home that was proven to Biden within the White Home State of affairs Room.
The president obtained a closing briefing on July 25, as he remained remoted within the White Home residence with COVID-19, the insiders stated.
Biden — who had tried to halt then-President Barack Obama’s lethal strike on bin Laden — this time gave the sign-off for “a exact tailor-made airstrike” as quickly as the chance arose, officers stated.
That chance got here early Sunday — late Saturday in Washington — after what Biden described as “clear and convincing” indicators that they may kill him in a solution to “reduce the danger of hurt to different civilians.”
An extra 36 hours of intelligence evaluation would observe earlier than US officers started sharing that al-Zawahiri was useless.
The Haqqani Taliban community was seen limiting entry to the secure home and relocating the useless al Qaeda chief’s household — which officers interpreted because the nation’s rulers making an attempt to hide the truth that they'd harbored the world’s most wished terrorist.
“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist chief is not any extra,” Biden lastly instructed the nation Monday.
“Now we make it clear once more tonight, that regardless of how lengthy it takes, regardless of the place you disguise: If you're a risk to our folks, america will discover you and take you out,” he stated.
Ayman al-Zawahiri was simply 15 when he was recognized to have sought to overthrow Egypt’s “infidel” regime, in the end serving three years in jail in connection to the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
It was after his launch in 1984 that he first courted bin Laden — who was wowed by his soon-to-be right-hand man’s lifelong devotion to jihad.
“Bin Laden at all times seemed as much as him,” stated terrorism skilled Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown College.
He was impressed that al-Zawahiri “frolicked in an Egyptian jail, he was tortured. He was a jihadi from the time he was a teen.”
The pair had been excessive on the intelligence radar for many years earlier than Sept. 11, with al-Zawahiri assumed to guide al Qaeda’s ways and organizational expertise whereas his supposed chief provided charisma and money.
“For many years, he was the mastermind behind the assaults towards People,” Biden stated Monday as he declared that “justice has been delivered” with al-Zawahiri’s dying.
Because the commander-in-chief famous, the terrorist “performed a key function, a key function within the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and wounding over 4,500 others” in 1998.
He was behind “the USS Cole [bombing] in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors and wounded dozens extra,” Biden pressured.
“He carved a path of homicide and violence towards Americans, American service members, American diplomats and American pursuits,” he stated.
When the US invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 assaults in 2001, al-Zawahiri and bin Laden fled to Pakistan — as a US airstrike killed al-Zawahiri’s spouse and at the very least two of their six youngsters.
He was named al Qaeda’s chief lower than two months after bin Laden was killed in a US raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, main the worldwide community from isolation.
By the point al-Zawahiri was lastly pulverized by two US Hellfire missiles Sunday, he had devoted almost all of his 71 years to terrorism.
White Home nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby stated Tuesday the US had no DNA affirmation of his dying, however had verified his id via different sources.
“We do not need DNA affirmation. We’re not going to get that affirmation. Fairly frankly, primarily based on a number of sources and strategies that we’ve gathered info from, we don’t want it,” Kirby instructed CNN.
“We've visible affirmation, however we even have affirmation via different sources.”
With Publish wires
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