File photo of a U.S. Air Force MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), carrying a Hellfire missile landing at a secret air base after flying a mission in the Persian Gulf region on January 7, 2016.

According to the New Y0rk Times, the CIA used a missile called the Hellfire R9X to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda. The missile is called the "flying Ginsu" and the "Ninja bomb" because it doesn't have any explosives and deploys six retractable blades.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the missile was being developed as early as 2011. The R9X is said to be better at avoiding damage than a Hellfire missile. It is similar to an anvil falling from the sky.

There appears to be a very precise hole in the building where al-Zawahiri was staying and the photos posted to social media seem to support the idea that the missile used was of the R9X variety. No one else was killed, according to the U.S. government, though that claim has yet to be verified by the Taliban.

The missile was used to hit Zawahiri, who was on his balcony.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Hellfire R9X has been used in a number of countries, including Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia.

The 71-year-old Zawahiri has been on the U.S. hit list for over two decades, and has been linked to terrorist plots against American forces around the world. The World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. were attacked by terrorists.

A screenshot from a videotape aired August 5, 2006 on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network shows Al-Qaeda’s then-second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri at an undisclosed place and time.

The use of drones by the US has been controversial for a long time. President George W. Bush began the widespread use of drones after 9/11. President Barack Obama expanded the program after he took office in 2009, while President Donald Trump expanded it even more after he took office.

During the country's exit from Afghanistan, the most high-profile murder of civilians was on August 29, 2011. A group of people, including seven children, were killed when the U.S. military mistook them for terrorists. The person they were looking for was actually an aid worker in Afghanistan who was killed in the line of duty.

The video of the attack against Ahmadi was obtained by the New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.