Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri died last weekend as a result of a US airstrike on Kabul, said US President Joe Biden.. This is the heaviest blow to the terrorist organization since 2011, when its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in a US special forces operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Zawahiri has been in hiding for years, and the operation to find and kill him was the result of the “thorough, patient and persistent” work of US counterterrorism and intelligence specialists, a senior US government official said.

At the time of this US announcement, the Egyptian doctor was either in the semi-autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan or somewhere in Afghanistan.

* For years, US authorities have been aware of the existence of a network believed to support Zawahiri. Over the past year, following the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, US intelligence agencies have been looking for clues as to whether and where the al-Qaeda leader was in the country.

This year his family was discovered: wife, daughter and her children. They settled in a hideout in Kabul. They then traced Ayman al-Zawahiri himself to this house in the Afghan capital.

* Over the course of several months, intelligence officials became increasingly convinced that they had located Zawahiri in a hideout in Kabul, and in early April they informed senior government officials. President Biden was then briefed by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

“We were able to find out how the residents of the house lived from several independent sources,” the US representative explained.

After Zawahiri arrived at the shelter in Kabul, US intelligence established that he did not leave him, but repeatedly went to the balcony – the target of the strike.

* Officials studied the structure and physical environment of the shelter, as well as how its occupants moved around inside, to ensure that the operation to kill Zawahiri could be carried out without compromising the building’s structural integrity and minimizing risk to his family members. and other civilians.

* In recent weeks, the US president has been meeting with his advisers and ministers to chart a course of action. On July 1, Mr. Biden was briefed on the details of the alleged operation in the so-called Situation Room by members of his administration and by US Director of Intelligence William Burns.

According to the US representative, he asked questions about lighting conditions, the weather, the materials from which the house was built, and other factors that could determine the success of the operation. He also asked for an analysis of the possible consequences of a strike on Kabul.

* A small circle of legal advisers from various agencies reviewed the CIA intelligence and confirmed that Zawahiri was a legitimate target, given that he remained the leader of al-Qaeda. On July 25, US President Biden called a meeting of key members of his administration and advisers to get an update and discuss with them how the assassination of the al-Qaeda leader would affect, among other things, Washington’s relations with the Taliban, according to an official. After listening to the views of his ministers and advisers, Biden approved a proposal to launch a “pinpoint airstrike” on the condition that the risk of civilian casualties be minimized.

* The strike was carried out at 21:48 Saturday (US time; 04:48 Sunday Greek time) by a UAV armed with Hellfire missiles.

Source: Reuters, APE-MPE.