Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan on Sunday, the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by a US operation in 2011.
Intelligence agencies had "relentlessly" sought Zawahiri under previous administrations dating back to George W Bush, according to US President Joe Biden.
So how did US forces locate the man they had been hunting for more than 20 years, and what transpired on that Sunday morning?
Here's how the operation unfolded
At sunrise on Sunday, Zawahiri came outside on the balcony of a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, and apparently lingered there, as US intelligence noted he often did.
On this day, a US drone fired two Hellfire missiles at the 71-year-old Al Qaeda leader as he stood, according to US officials speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the strike.
His presence in Afghanistan had been widely suspected for some time.
US officials learned this year that Zawahiri's wife and other family members had recently moved to a safe house in Kabul.
Zawahiri soon followed to reunite with them, the senior administration officials said.
US officials spent months carefully confirming his identity — and his fateful practise of standing alone on the balcony — and planned the strike.
A CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed Zawahiri's death.
Family members of Zawahiri, including his daughter and her children, were in the house at the time of the attack but no others had been killed, according to US officials.
Zawahiri was Osama Bin Laden's 'deputy'
Zawahiri was Bin laden's "number two man", as Mr Biden put it.
The pair became acquainted in Afghanistan in the 1980s when Zawahiri, a trained surgeon, worked with the Red Crescent treating independent fighters against Soviet forces.
He helped bin Laden form Al Qaeda and took over as leader in 2011 after bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan that year.
In the years following, US air strikes killed a succession of Zawahiri's deputies, weakening the veteran Egyptian militant's ability to coordinate globally.
Zawahiri is believed to have been involved in some of Al Qaeda's biggest operations and to have been the true architect behind the September 11 attacks in 2001, when four aircraft were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.
He spoke in a number of taunting video messages released by Al Qaeda following the infamous attack.
Prior to the formation of Al Qaeda, Zawahiri led the group Islamic Jihad in Egypt in the 1990s, and was a leading figure in a campaign to overthrow the government and set up a purist Islamic state.
How did Taliban government respond to a US attack on its soil?
The drone attack is the first known US strike inside Afghanistan since US troops and diplomats left the country in August 2021.
Prior to withdrawing, the US made a peace pact with the Taliban known as the Doha Agreement.
A statement from Afghanistan's Taliban government said the Taliban "strongly condemns this attack and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement".
"Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region," the statement said.
The US, however, says the Taliban already "grossly" violated the Doha Agreement by sheltering Zawahiri in the first place.
"In the face of the Taliban’s unwillingness or inability to abide by their commitments, we will continue to support the Afghan people with robust humanitarian assistance and to advocate for the protection of their human rights, especially of women and girls," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Mr Biden said justice had been delivered.
"People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer," Mr Biden said.
"We make it clear again tonight that, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out."
ABC/ Wires
