[imagesource: Visual News / Getty Images]

In the years since the death of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri (above right) rose through the ranks to become al Qaeda’s leader.

Somebody else will need to fill that role now, because roughly an hour after sunrise on Sunday (July 31) al-Zawahiri was taken out by two missiles while standing on the balcony of his downtown Kabul compound.

Previous missile strikes aimed at taking out America’s top terror targets have caused civilian deaths, including children, in recent years. This time, though, the 71-year-old was killed but his family were left unscathed.

That’s due in large part to the type of missile used, drone-fired Hellfires, which are “a type of air-to-surface missile” that’s becoming increasingly popular.

Over to the BBC:

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…

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.

Image: BBC

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. Once the missile is fired, it follows the path of that laser until striking the target.

The R9X Hellfire variant, which is being reported as the exact type used but has not been confirmed by authorities, is also known as the “Ninja” or “Flying Ginsu” missile.

Before a strike like this is signed off from higher up, a number of boxes need to be ticked. Consider this, via PBS:

Confirming al-Zawahri’s identity, devising a strike in a crowded city that wouldn’t recklessly endanger civilians, and ensuring the operation wouldn’t set back other U.S. priorities took months to fall into place.

Image: BBC

That effort involved independent teams of analysts reaching similar conclusions about the probability of al-Zawahri’s presence, the scale mock-up and engineering studies of the building to evaluate the risk to people nearby, and the unanimous recommendation of Biden’s advisers to go ahead with the strike…

When he was satisfied the operation would be a success, Biden gave the go-ahead for a “tailored airstrike”. This was designed so that the missiles would only destroy the compound’s balcony (pictured above), with the rest of the house largely undamaged.

The Hellfire missile may be precise but it’s still a brutal way to meet your demise. Below from CBS:

The R9X Hellfire has six blades that rotate at high speed and deploy before impact — instead of conventional warhead explosives, according to Janes, a defense intelligence provider. The missile pierces and cuts its target, rather than blowing it up…

Hellfire missiles are air-to-surface missiles initially designed for anti-armor strikes, but later versions have been used for precision drone strikes. The arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin developed the missiles with the name “Heliborne, Laser, Fire, and Forget Missile,” which evolved into the Hellfire missile, as it is now known.

Reporter Jay Hancock shared this image showing the blades:

Weapon CIA used to get al-Zawahiri. Kinetic Hellfire R9X. No warhead explosives, just blades that swing out to kill only one guy. pic.twitter.com/0dwkC40003

— Jay Hancock (@jayhancock1) August 2, 2022

US intelligence officials, working with sources in Afghanistan, had figured out via extensive surveillance that al-Zawahiri regularly walked on his balcony in the morning.

Those walks have now come to an abrupt end.

[sources:bbc&pbs&cbs]