Comment Ayman al-Zawahiri, the 71-year-old al-Qaeda leader, stepped onto the third-floor balcony of his home in an exclusive Kabul neighborhood around 6:15 a.m. Sunday. It usually appeared in the morning, shortly after dawn. Sometimes he read. He was always alone. And the CIA was watching. After hunting the co-planner of the September 11, 2001 attacks for more than two decades, US intelligence personnel had located Zawahiri a few months earlier in a safe house in the Shirpur district of Kabul, where senior Afghan officials have mansions. Members of the Taliban’s Haqqani faction, who patrolled the area, knew exactly who their new neighbor was, US officials said. Intelligence analysts monitored the home, creating a “life pattern” based on the occupants’ comings and goings. They paid special attention to the man who, as far as they could tell, never left. The others — now believed to be Zawahiri’s wife, daughter and her children — took steps to avoid being followed home whenever they went out. A senior administration official called it “a long-running terrorist trade.” The house seemed to be in the safe part of the neighborhood, behind a large bank and several guarded alleyways with government compounds. It was a short distance from the former US top military headquarters and the US embassy in central Kabul. Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of al-Qaeda, has been killed at the age of 71 This summer, after President Biden was informed of Zawahiri’s possible location, he ordered his advisers to take all possible steps to ensure that if they launched a strike, only Zawahiri would be killed, officials said. When the time came, the balcony offered the best shot. This account of Zawahiri’s hunt comes from interviews with multiple US officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to describe operations and decision-making leading up to Biden’s strike order. Zawahiri’s death, which Biden announced to the nation in a speech at the White House on Monday afternoon, may have only marginal operational value. After so long on the run, he was more of a protagonist than a mastermind. He was nominally the head of a terrorist organization operating as a network of affiliates in Africa and the Middle East. But for Biden, the strike is a major political and strategic victory. Not only did the United States eliminate a prominent terrorist and help shut down the 9/11 attacks, but Operation Zawahiri also offered proof of the “over the horizon” strikes that Biden has long argued would let the United States states are resisting the threat of terrorism in Afghanistan without having to station troops there. The drone attack was the first in Afghanistan since US forces left the country a year ago. Just finding Zawahiri was a great break in a decades-long manhunt. In late 2001, in the midst of a fierce battle with US forces, he had escaped to the mountainous border region of eastern Afghanistan with al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Zawahiri’s whereabouts became the subject of rumors and speculation. But for several years, the US intelligence community had been monitoring a network of people who supported Zawahiri, who took over al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed in 2011 during a US raid in Pakistan. Zawahiri spent his years on the run avoiding detection and sending ideological, often pedagogic, video messages to his followers. After US forces left Kabul in August 2021, Zawahiri apparently saw an opportunity to reunite with his family. Earlier this year, intelligence personnel identified Zawahiri’s family members living in the home in Kabul. It is unclear whether Zawahiri joined them or was already there. But using what the senior administration official described as “multiple streams of intelligence,” officials began focusing on an elderly man in the home in an effort to confirm his identity. The Taliban are facing a backlash after the US drone strike against the al Qaeda leader For the CIA, finding and killing Zawahiri was more than an operational imperative. It was depreciation. In 2009, seven CIA personnel, along with two others, were killed when a man claiming to have information about Zawahiri stormed a US base in Khost, Afghanistan, and detonated a suicide bomb. It was the deadliest attack on the CIA in more than a quarter of a century. In early April, Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, Biden’s homeland security adviser, were briefed on the latest information on the al Qaeda leader. As the picture unfolded, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, also received a briefing. Shortly thereafter, he informed the president that the United States may have located Zawahiri. In June and July, teams gathered to verify the information, ruling out any plausible alternative explanation for who was hiding in the house. Government lawyers confirmed the legal basis for the operation, which is standard procedure for drone strikes. Zawahiri had a “continuing leadership role in al-Qaida” and had participated in and supported terrorist attacks, the senior official said. It was considered a legitimate target. As the lawyers and analysts worked, senior officials and their deputies met several times in the situation room. “We needed to make sure that our intelligence was solid and that we developed clear options for the president,” the senior administration official said. By early July, intelligence personnel were almost certain they had positively identified Zawahiri and devised a way to kill him alone. On July 1, Biden convened a situation room meeting with key advisers and cabinet members to review the intelligence and strike plan. CIA Director William J. Burns, wearing a protective mask, sat to Biden’s right. On the table between them was a small wooden box, with metal latches on the sides and a handle on top, containing a miniature model of Zawahiri’s safe house. The president reviewed the model and asked questions about the strike plan. He also asked how the officials were sure they had positively identified Zawahiri. They described the president in their analysis. “He asked for an explanation of the lighting, weather, construction materials and other factors that could affect the success of this operation and reduce the risk of civilian casualties,” the senior administration official said. Biden also called for an analysis of the ramifications, in the region and beyond, of the rocket launch into central Kabul. The president also had a captive American in mind — Mark Frerichs, a 60-year-old American civil engineer and Navy veteran who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in January 2020. The only known American hostage in the country, he is believed to have been captured by the Haqqani network. . Efforts to bring him home were underway, and Biden wanted to know how the strike could jeopardize his return, as well as efforts to relocate Afghans who had helped US forces when they were deployed to the country. On July 25, Biden called a final briefing. Again, the president pressed for details on the damage the strike could do to the safe house, the senior official said. He wanted to better understand the layout of the rooms behind the door and windows on the third floor, where the balcony was located. Biden asked for input from each adviser who participated in the briefing. Should he approve the strike? Everyone said yes. On July 31 — last Sunday — Zawahiri walked onto the balcony, alone. At 6:18 a.m., a CIA drone in the sky fired two Hellfire missiles. It is not known if Zawahiri reacted. But former officials involved in drone strikes say it’s not uncommon, in the final seconds before impact, for the target to look up as he hears a missile hurtling toward him. Zawahiri’s killing draws praise from bipartisan Saudi lawmakers The key to keeping the Zawahiri family alive seems to have been the choice of weapon. In the past, the US has used precision strike missiles that are packed with only a small amount of explosives or none at all, turning the Hellfire into a kind of massive speed bullet that will destroy anything it hits. A US official said he believed a Hellfire munition with the explosive power of a grenade was used. Photos of the safe house do not show the kinds of burns typically associated with a large explosion. Intelligence analysts reviewed various streams of information, which likely included aerial surveillance, and determined that only Zawahiri was killed. His family remained safe inside the house and no civilians were injured outside, the senior administration official said. A few blocks away from the site, residents and shopkeepers said Tuesday morning that they heard a loud explosion two days earlier. Some said they had been startled by the roar and shaking of the ground, while others said they had long been accustomed to such attacks during the years of war. “All the children ran away from the sound. We haven’t heard anything like this since the old government was in charge,” said Haq Asghar, a retired army officer chatting outside a hardware store. He said Shirpur district was tightly controlled by the Taliban and anyone occupying a house or shop had to provide detailed documents and information. “Security is very good now. They certainly don’t let foreigners settle here,” he said. After the strike, members of the Haqqani Taliban stormed in and tried to hide Zawahiri’s presence at the safe house, restricting access to it and the surrounding area for several hours, the senior administration official said. They moved Zawahiri’s wife, his daughter and her children to another location. The house that once held the al Qaeda leader is now empty. Pamela Constable in Kabul and Dan Lamothe in Washington…