Pak Sahafat – An American official announced the details of the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, in the drone attack of this country in Kabul.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, quoted by the Afghan President’s News Agency; A senior US government official told Reuters that al-Zawahiri had been in hiding for years and that the operation to find and kill him was the result of patient, meticulous and continuous work by the US counter terrorism and intelligence community.
The official, who asked not to be named, said that for several years, the US government was aware of a network that the country assessed was supporting Ayman al-Zawahiri. He did not give more details about this network.
He added that during the last year, after the withdrawal of America from Afghanistan, the American authorities were looking for signs of the presence of Al-Qaeda in this country. According to this American official, this year the officials identified that the Al-Zawahiri family; His wife, daughter and children have moved to a safe house in Kabul and later he was also identified in this house.
The American official added that over the course of several months, intelligence officials became more certain that al-Zawahiri was hiding behind a safe house in Kabul.
According to this official, this issue was announced to senior government officials in early April, and then US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan informed Joe Biden.
This official said that when al-Zawahiri arrived at the safe house in Kabul, the authorities were unaware of his departure from the house. But he was identified several times on the balcony of this house, where he was targeted.
He added that officials reviewed the construction and nature of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s safe house to ensure that the United States could confidently conduct an operation to kill al-Zawahiri without threatening the building and minimizing the risk to civilians and the family.
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In recent weeks, Biden has held meetings with key advisers and cabinet members to scrutinize the information and assess the best course of action, according to the US source.
He said that on July 1, Biden discussed a proposed operation with members of his cabinet, including William Burns, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
This American official added: “Biden asked detailed questions about what we knew and how we knew it, and closely examined the safe house model that the intelligence community had developed and brought to the meeting.”
He stated that Biden asked about lighting, weather and other factors that could affect the success of this operation. According to him, the American president also demanded to analyze the possible consequences of the attack in Kabul.
According to the US official, a group of senior interagency lawyers also reviewed the intelligence reports and confirmed that al-Zawahiri was a legal target due to his continued leadership of al-Qaeda.
The official said that on July 25, Biden called his cabinet members and advisers for a final meeting to discuss how the killing of al-Zawahiri will affect US relations with the Taliban.
After consulting others, Biden authorized the precision airstrike on the condition that the risk of civilian casualties is minimized, the official said.
The American official has stated that al-Zawahiri was finally killed on July 30, at 9:48 a.m. US time, by an unmanned aircraft that fired missiles known as “Hellfire”.