For a year, U.S. officials have been saying that taking out a terrorist threat in Afghanistan with no American troops on the ground would be difficult but not impossible. Last weekend, the U.S. did just that -- killing al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri with a CIA drone strike. Other high-profile airstrikes in the past had inadvertently killed innocent civilians. In this case, the U.S. carefully chose to use a type of Hellfire missile that greatly minimized the chance of other casualties. Although U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed which variant of the Hellfire was used, experts and others familiar with counterterrorism operations said a likely option was the highly secretive Hellfire R9X -- know by various nicknames, including the "knife bomb" or the "flying Ginsu."

The death of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend marks the biggest blow to the terrorist group since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. At the same time, it highlights the extent to which members of the jihadi organization seem to once again be operating freely in the Taliban-ruled country following the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition troops last August. This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software. Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites. If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this support page. We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.

A U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Ayman al-Zawahri, who helped Osama bin Laden plot the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and ensured al-Qaida survived and spread in the years after. President Joe Biden on Monday announced the killing of al-Zawahri, delivering a significant counterterrorism win just 11 months after American troops left the country. A look at the al-Qaida leader, who evaded U.S. capture for 21 years after the suicide airliner attacks that in many ways changed America and its relations with the rest of the world. Americans who lived through the 9/11 attacks may not remember al-Zawahri's name, but many know his face more than two decades on: a man in glasses, slightly smiling, invariably shown in photos by the side of bin Laden as the two arranged the strike on the United States. An Egyptian, al-Zawahri was born June 19, 1951, to a comfortable family in a leafy, drowsy Cairo suburb.

Washington – A senior al-Qaida leader was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria, the Pentagon said Friday. The strike comes two days after a base in southern Syria, used by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, was assaulted. "A U.S. airstrike today in northwest Syria killed senior al-Qaida leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar," said Central Command spokesman Maj. There were no known casualties from the strike, he said, adding it was conducted using an MQ-9 aircraft. "The removal of this al-Qaida senior leader will disrupt the terrorist organization's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks," he said.

Abu Khayr al-Masri was killed in Syria on Thursday. Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abd Al-Rahman, better known by his alias Abu Khayr al-Masri, a 59-year-old Egyptian and a longtime top member of al-Qaida, was killed in an American drone strike in Syria, the terrorist group confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The al-Qaida statement said he died in a "treacherous" drone strike it described as a "new crime by America and the crusader coalition," according to Reuters. A Hellfire missile fired by a CIA drone struck the car carrying Abu Khayr al-Masri in Idlib, Syria, on Sunday, Reuters reported. The attack was also reported by CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says a U.S. airstrike in Syria last month killed what the Defense Department describes as a senior al-Qaida leader who once had ties to Osama bin Laden. Jeff Davis, identifies the target as Haydar Kirkan. The spokesman says Kirkan oversaw the planning of attacks against Western targets outside of Syria, including in Turkey. Davis says a U.S. drone carried out the airstrike Oct. 17 in the vicinity of Idlib, in western Syria. The U.S. has previously announced that in the week after that airstrike, it hit al-Qaida targets in Yemen and Afghanistan.