Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaida Leader, Killed in Kabul by a U.S. Drone Strike
Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the perpetrators of the 9-11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, was killed by a U.S. drone missile in Afghanistan's capital, President Joe Biden announced yesterday.
After hunting for him for 21 years, the US killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda, in a precision air strike earlier this month on July 31, 2022, with a drone strike targeting him at a safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan. Zawahiri had led al-Qaida since May 2011, when U.S. special operations forces killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Zawahiri, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, was killed as he stood on a balcony of a house in Kabul. The early morning strike was conducted by a drone that fired two R9X missiles.
After Bin Laden’s death, Zawahiri coordinated al-Qaida's branches around the world — including setting priorities and providing operational guidance that called for and inspired attacks against U.S. targets, Biden said. "Now, justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more," the president said. "People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer. The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm.”
Locating Zawahiri was the result of careful, patient and persistent work by counterterrorism professionals, a defense official said.
"Our ability to act on it effectively was made possible by quick, decisive action by the president once we knew with confidence where Zawahiri was located and that we could conduct the operation in a manner that limited the risk of civilian casualties," the official said. "We make it clear again tonight that — no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide — if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out."
The mission to kill Zawahiri comes almost exactly a year after Biden ended the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.
"I made the decision that, after 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who seek to do us harm," he said at the White House.
"And I made a promise to the American people that we'd continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We've done just that.”
In a written statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Taliban had violated its agreement by hosting the al-Qaida leader.
"By hosting and sheltering the leader of al-Qaida in Kabul, the Taliban grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries. They betrayed both the Afghan people and their own commitment.
The R9X Missile
Unlike past drone strikes in Afghanistan, including one in the final days of the US withdrawal last year. The US showed off its newest weapon payload - a 6 feet long (1,829mm) and 100 pounds (45kg) precision missile.
This strike is believed to have killed only its intended target and caused little collateral damage — suggesting that the CIA-led attack made use of one of the most secretive weapons in the US arsenal.
The R9X missile was developed in an attempt to reduce collateral damage and civilian casualties, the R9X missile is probably one of the most, if not the most, precise munitions of its kind in the world.
While other versions of the Hellfire take out targets in the expected ways — through explosive force or with shrapnel — the R9X crushes or slices a target to death. It is essentially a flying bundle of swords that can kill the occupant of a car without harming people around the vehicle.
The missile itself is about 6 feet long (1,829mm) and 100 pounds (45kg) with six 18-inch (457mm) blades that pop out of its midsection seconds before impact. Propelled by the missile, they can slice through most anything in their path and have a reported kill radius of 3 feet (914mm). Precision drone strikes are nothing new in the US-led war on terror. Since 2001, US leaders have turned to unmanned aerial systems to monitor, track, and take out terrorists all over the world.
The heavy reliance on drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere led to increased civilian casualties.That, along with terrorists' attempts to surround themselves with civilians to avoid US airstrikes, prompted development of the R9X, according to US officials who revealed the munition's existence in 2019.
The US military has used the Hellfires for decades. Several variants tailored to different operational circumstances have been developed and become some of the most frequently used precision-guided munitions.
In 2015 alone, units assigned to US Special Operations Command fired more than 1,000 Hellfire missiles of all variants, primarily against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. The R9X variant is reserved for the most important and hardest-to-reach targets and doesn't appear to be used often.
Noted prominent cases of its employment include:
2017 strike in Syria against Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, deputy leader of Al Qaeda.
2019 strike in Yemen against Jamal al-Badawi.
2000 Al Qaeda terrorist bombing the USS Cole.
2020 strike in Syria against Sayyaf al-Tunsi, a senior Al Qaeda member.
2022 July 31, strike in Kabul against Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda.
The strike on al-Zawahiri was carried out by the CIA, but CIA isn't the only one using the R9X.
US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is "the prime purchaser" of the missile, the Pentagon says. SOCOM and the secretive unit within it, “Joint Special Operations Command”, have used the missile several times in the past to take out high-value targets across the Middle East.
The US special-operations community as a whole invested heavily in aerial drones after seeing early in the wars on terrors that they offer immense utility and flexibility to “commanders”.
新一代的「除王」載具！「戰爭」的終結者來了！
Terminator「無人直升機」vs「MQ-9B 無人機」
起飛重量約 <1,700公斤”：起飛無需跑道
起飛重量 “4,760 公斤”：起飛需跑道
空機重量：<1,200公斤
飛機空重：2,223公斤
載重量：<500公斤
載重量：1,700公斤
發動機：<395馬力
發動機：950馬力
實用升限：<3,000公尺
實用升限：15,000公尺
作戰飛行高度： < 15公尺
作戰飛行高度：高於 > 7,500公尺
耗油量：<32公升/小時
耗油量：約>225公升/小時
巡航速度：< 115～150節
巡航速度：150～260節
持續航時：8～10小時
持續航時：14～28小時
航程：< 2,000公里
航程：1,852～3,704公里
「精準輕型飛彈」：A New Breed of "Precision Munition for Precision Strike".
