The United States announced the death of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, leader of Al-Qaeda, while traveling in Afghanistan. This was done by firing a modified missile from a drone.
USA, through its president Joe Bidenhas announced the death of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who became the boss Al-Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden thanks to an attack with an unmanned drone on Afghanistan.
For his feat, the US made use of the Hellfire R9X, also called “fire ninja” to end his life. What is your technology?
The ninja bomb against Al-Qaeda
The Hellfire R9X has become one of the weapons of choice for the United States to assassinate terrorists without making mistakes with civilians.
The R9X first appeared in March 2017 when Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, one of Al-Zawahiri’s right-hand men in Al-Qaeda, was killed by a drone strike while traveling in a car in Syria.
They are modifications of Hellfire missiles, which are air-to-surface, laser-guided, subsonic missiles with significant anti-tank capability.
The Hellfire R9X has been designed to carry pop-up sword blades (or “paddles”) to kill targets with minimal collateral damage.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the R9X, which was reportedly developed under the Obama administration with the goal of reducing civilian casualties, “comes equipped with a different type of payload: a halo of six long blades that are stored inside and then deployed through the missile’s skin seconds before impact to make sure it shreds anything in its path.”
The death of Ayman al-Zawahiri
The US killed Ayman al Zawahiri in an anti-terrorist operation carried out by a drone against a house where the Al Qaeda leader resided in the Afghan capital.
Al Zawahiri, a 71-year-old Egyptian surgeon, was the right-hand man of Saudi bin Laden, and became the leader of the terrorist organization after his death on May 1, 2011 in a US attack.
Ayman al Zawahiri had been wanted since the 1990s by several countries, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and after the September 11 attacks in the US, Interpol ordered his search and capture, and the FBI put him on its list one of the most wanted with a reward of 25 million dollars for information leading to his arrest.