![]() In the aftermath of the attack, however, US officials said they had enough information to understand Zawahiri's "pattern of life" at the house - such as his balcony habit. Photo: Supplied US tracked Zawahiri's 'balcony habit'ĭetails are still emerging about what intelligence the US gathered before launching the Kabul strike. This handout image courtesy of Maxar Technologies released on Augand taken on Octoshows the builiding (L) in which Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was probably located at the time of the strike that killed him in Kabul. Photos of his vehicle taken after the strike showed that the missile had cut a hole in the roof and shredded its occupants, but without signs of an explosion or any further destruction to the vehicle. In 2017, another al-Qaeda leader and one of Zawahiri's deputies, Abu Khayr al-Masri, was reportedly killed with an R9X Hellfire in Syria. In the case of the Zawahiri strike, it has been suggested, but not confirmed, that the US also used a relatively unknown version of the Hellfire - the R9X - which deploys six blades to slice through targets using its kinetic energy. "It sounds like they were very careful and deliberate in this instance to find him in a location and at a time when they could hit just him and not harm any other person," Prof Banks said. The Zawahiri strike, he added, "sounds like a model application" of the process. Professor William Banks, an expert on targeted killings and the founder of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, said that officials would have had to balance the risk of civilian deaths with the value of the target. In past US military or CIA strikes, this has included calling on military lawyers for consultations before the order to fire is given. There are clear, sequential procedures the crew operating the drone must follow before taking action, to minimise the risk of civilian casualties. Once the missile is fired, it follows the path of that laser until striking the target. Using a set of "targeting brackets" on the screen, the camera operator is then able to "lock up" the target and point a laser at it. When a missile is launched from a drone, a weapons operator - sometimes sitting in an air-conditioned control room as far away as the continental US - sees a live video stream of the target, which the drone's camera sensors feed back via satellite. The US is believed to have used Hellfires to kill Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in early 2020, and the British-born Islamic State jihadist known as "Jihadi John" in Syria in 2015.Īmong the main reasons for the Hellfire's repeated use is its precision. ![]() The missile can be fired from a variety of platforms, including helicopters, ground vehicles, ships and fixed wing aircraft - or, in Zawahiri's case, from an unmanned drone. The type of missile used was key - and these were said by US officials to be drone-fired Hellfires - a type of air-to-surface missile that has become a fixture of US counter-terrorism operations overseas in the decades since the 11 September 2001 attacks. Photo: AFP / Photo by SITE Intelligence Group Laser accuracy ![]()
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