Story of Kabul betrayal and US plan to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri

The killing of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a Hellfire missile strike in Afghanistan's capital Kabul has once again raised question marks about the Taliban's commitment to the Doha agreement, which led to American troops withdrawing from the country.

Also Read: Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda head with $25 million bounty on his head?

That al-Zawahiri was able to reside in the high-profile Shirpur Square neighbourhood in Kabul with his family members and associates is indicative of the fact that he had assistance from the Taliban.

Senior American intelligence officials said that the house in which al-Zawahri was killed was owned by senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani's top aide. 

Even though Al Qaeda significantly weakened since the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan's Abbottabad, the United States continued to track the movements of al-Zawahiri. Over the years, officials learned that he was able to consolidate Al Qaeda's global operations with the help of a clandestine network. The same network helped him dodge US intelligence officials for years.

Then earlier this year, US intelligence officials received information that the Al Qaeda chief's wife, daughter and her children had been shifted to a safe house in Kabul. Eventually, information trickled in about Zawahiri's presence inside the house.

The safe house was put under surveillance with ground operatives establishing a "pattern of life" to formulate an operational plan. However, reports suggest that the information was collected locally and that there were no US personnel in Kabul.

In April, intelligence officials briefed top White House officials, including homeland security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall. 

Besides US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, only a handful knew of the plan to take out Zawahiri. According to a senior administration official, Biden was briefed about the strike plan on July 1 in the Situation Room of the White House. Biden was shown a scale model of the house in which al-Zawahiri was residing. 

He was assured that a Hellfire strike would cause no collateral damage. Biden gave the green light to the strike on July 25. 

The Taliban officials, for obvious reasons, were kept out of the loop about the operation. Al-Zawahiri was standing at the balcony of the house when two Hellfire missiles fired from an unmanned drone struck. The rest of his family members were in another portion of the house when the missiles struck.

A CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance confirmed al-Zawahiri’s death in the drone strike.

Also Read: 'Justice has been served': Hellfire missiles take out Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul