The two Hellfire missiles that killed the leader of Al Qaeda in a drone strike were likely a secretive variant that deploys blades instead of bombs.
The Department of Defense said that Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a safehouse on Sunday. The killing was described as a counterterrorism operation.
President Joe Biden said in a Monday speech that no civilians or family members were killed when al-Zawahiri and his family hid in downtown Kabul.
A senior administration official said in the Department of Defense's statement that they are confident that they killed Zawahiri and no one else.
The building in which al-Zawahiri was housed had its windows smashed, but the structure was intact.
—Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) August 1, 2022
The Hellfire missiles were used in the operation. The Hellfire R9X variant is believed to have been used because of the minimal damage caused.
Bellingcat says that the R9X is an air-to-ground missile that destroys its targets using its kinetic energy and six blades.
There are no public images of what the missile looks like before it is fired.
The lack of explosives in the R9X makes it effective at killing individual targets while reducing the chance of civilian deaths.
The R9X is believed to have been used to kill Abu al-Khayr al-Masri. The engine of al-Masri's car was undamaged despite the roof being shredded open on the passenger's side.
The R9X may have been used in a 2020 US drone strike in Syria that killed three men.
There were photos of a truck with a hole in it's roof. The cab was destroyed, but the rear of the vehicle was undamaged.
—Samir (@obretix) July 20, 2020
Bellingcat said that the R9X's blades appear to fragment on impact, which could explain why no complete blades have been found.
The US mistakenly bombed an aid worker in Afghanistan last year, thinking he was a militant. A 20-pound Hellfire missile variant was used in the attack that killed 10 people.
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