The CIA-planned Hellfire missile strike that killed terror mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri may signal the resurgence of a wave of extremist violence towards the West, experts have warned.
Two bladed R9X “ninja” Hellfires are believed to have sliced the 71-year-old al-Qaeda boss to pieces in a precision hit as he relaxed on the balcony of a posh Kabul mansion at the weekend.
But as the drone-launched razor rockets chopped into the most-hunted terrorist in the world a new and more dangerous al-Qaeda chief was waiting in the wings.
Tonight intelligence and terrorism experts warned Zawahiri’s death, although welcome revenge for thousands of deaths of civilians, signals a new threat to the world.
any fear the Egyptian surgeon and once sidekick to Osama bin Laden will be replaced by a more ruthless and blood-thirsty leader hell-bent on a wave of terror.
It is now believed the US used the terrorists worst nightmare, the R9X, which at 2,000 feet from its target springs out blades which slice the target apart but minimise other casualties.
The World’s most-hunted terrorist died when the Hellfire missile strike smashed into him at 6.18 am on Sunday Kabul local time.
Sources have also said British GCHQ listening station experts may have played a key role in tracing phone calls via a satellite snooping system.
Professor Peter Lee, a military drone expert and former RAF man, told the Daily Mirror: “If they used the R9X then it will have been the blades and not the explosion that killed him.
“It is interesting that the Americans are keen to say they minimised collateral damage, which usually they do not do and that is why the R9X was likely to have been used.”
British terrorism experts believe Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul and justified elimination demonstrate how al-Qaeda is still a huge danger, if not more so, to the west.
In the weeks after al-Qaeda’s 2001 9-11 attacks on the US, coalition troops toppled the Taliban to stop Afghanistan being a safe haven for bin Laden’s group to attack.
Former commander of British troops in Afghanistan and adviser to the UK government on terrorism Colonel Richard Kemp told the Daily Mirror: “The withdrawal from Afghanistan was clearly always going to allow the Taliban and al-Qaeda to further solidify their relationship.
“The fact that Zawahiri was in Kabul very much shows why this was the case and why al-Qaeda will continue to be a danger if not more so since it has been emboldened by the ending of security in Afghanistan.
“Pretty much the entire argument for going into Afghanistan in the first place was to deny groups like al-Qaeda to operate and plot attacks with the freedom that ungoverned space afforded them.
“And also to remove the ability of the Taliban to host them and plot alongside them.
“Al-Qaeda and its affiliates are more of a danger now and represent a huge threat and it has been allowed to happen.”
Zawahiri, who had a £20 million US bounty on his head had hidden for years in the rugged mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But his final weeks were spent in upscale Kabul neighbourhood Sherpur where top officials from the Taliban also live.
He was staying in the house of Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and The Mirror has learned Haqqani’s son and son-in-law may also have been killed in the strike.
But US President Joe Biden said no civilians were killed.
The Taliban confirmed an air strike on a residential house in the Sherpoor area of Kabul but said there were no casualties.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the drone strike and called it a violation of “international principles”.
A woman who lives in the neighbourhood, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she moved to the safe room of their house when she heard an explosion at the weekend. When she later went to the rooftop, she saw no commotion or chaos and assumed it was some rocket or bomb attack.
The senior Taliban leader said Zawahiri had spent most of his time in the mountains of Helmand province’s Musa Qala district after the Taliban was overthrown in 2001.
He said Zawahiri kept a low profile there but went in and out of Pakistan’s border regions several times.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon, helped coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
A US official said US officials identified that Zawahiri’s family - his wife, his daughter and her children - had relocated to a house in Kabul.
On multiple times they identified him on its balcony - where he was ultimately struck.
Former British intelligence officer and now Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Dover and Deal, Mike Tapp told the Daily Mirror: “Al-Qaeda has not gone away and the presence of senior figures in Afghanistan does not surprise me.
“There is no hiding place for those that have attacked the west and this sends a clear message to the Taliban that they cannot harbour terrorists in Afghanistan.
“However rather than making the world a safer place the death of Zawahiri, although justified, may not make the world a safer place.
“In fact a younger, more charismatic and operationally capable new al-Qaeda may signal a new era of threat and greater danger to the west.”
Dr Weeda Mehran, from Exeter University grew up in Afghanistan said: “Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have a long history of cooperation and co-existence.
“Ayman al-Zawahiri had pledged allegiance to the Taliban’s then leader Mullah Omar.
“The Taliban never severed ties with al-Qaeda or denounced al-Qaeda publicly.”
Zawahiri was officially indicted in the US for his role in the coordinated August 7 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi.
As number two to bin Laden in al-Qaeda he could have been tried for a large number of murderous terror attacks such as 9-11 across the US and even 7-7 in London.
The 2005 London bus and tube trains bombings killed 52 and injured around 700 and were inspired by al-Qaeda attacks across the globe.
One suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan said in a suicide tape he worshipped as heroes bin Laden, Zawahiri and even Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who was thrown out of al-Qaeda and then founded al-Qaeda in Iraq which then became ISIS.
Saudi bin Laden was shot dead in his secretive compound by US Navy SEALs in 2011 after a CIA operation to hunt him down had searched for years.
Soon after the al-Qaeda founder was announced to be dead al-Zawahiri took the reins and became extremely elusive as the CIA was desperate to find him.
Five monstrous terrorists who could take over al-Qaeda as leader
Terror mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US airstrike, Joe Biden announced this week.
Two bladed R9X “ninja” Hellfires are believed to have sliced the 71-year-old al-Qaeda boss to pieces in a precision hit as he relaxed on the balcony of a posh Kabul mansion at the weekend.
Following his death, intelligence and terrorism experts warned there could be a fresh wave of terror attacks on the West.
Many fear the Egyptian surgeon and once sidekick to Osama bin Laden will be replaced by a more ruthless and blood-thirsty leader hell-bent on a wave of terror.
It is not clear who will replace al-Zawahiri, but here are some potential new leaders.
Saif al-Adel
Ex-Egyptian Colonel Saif al-Adel, 60 - self-dubbed “The Sword of revenge” - may be the new chief and is at the top of the list of prospective new al-Qaeda bosses. He is also believed to be an expert in explosives.
Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi
Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, 52, is head of al-Qaeda’s PR section and a mastermind in propaganda. An expert in computer programming, he was educated in Germany but he’s believed to be in Iran. He is the son-in-law of al-Zawahiri.
Yazid Mebrak
Yazid Mebrak has a £5 million wanted price on his head. The 53-year-old Algerian-born terrorist is believed to be fighting in Mali as a kingpin in the group AQIM - or al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Ahmed Diriye
Ahmed Diriye is the current leader of the east African branch of al-Qaeda al Shabaab. He is 50 years old, Somalia-born, and carries a £4 million bounty on his head for plotting a terrorist attack.
Sami al-Orayd
Jordanian Sami al-Orayd, 49, has a degree in religious studies and is a senior member of the Syrian al-Nusra Front which is al-Qaeda affiliated. He is an outsider but his religious knowledge and authority on Sharia law may give him an edge.
