The CIA has unveiled a model of deceased al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri‘s safe house that was used to plan the drone strike that killed him on July 31.
At the time of his death, al Zawahiri was holed up in an at least three-story compound equipped with barbed-wire-topped walls and multiple balconies, the model revealed. Details about the model used to kill the terrorist leader who evaded authorities for decades had been kept under wraps until the agency displayed it at its museum, which is not open to the public, over the weekend.
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“This was the model that was used to brief President Biden on the Zawahiri mission,” Janelle Neises, deputy director of the CIA museum, told reporters, per NBC.
Fixed next to the model of the safe house, which is about a foot long in size, is the gun used by CIA officer Mike Spann, the first U.S. citizen to die in the invasion of Afghanistan, according to the report. He was part of a paramilitary team that penetrated the country in the early days of the war before being killed by Taliban fighters.
CIA releases model of building where al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by US drone strike in Kabul pic.twitter.com/rKXPdcIL6f
— Lucas Webber (@LucasADWebber) September 25, 2022
Also located near the model are seven stars to commemorate the CIA workers killed in a 2009 suicide bombing near Khost, Afghanistan, CBS reported. The model of al Zawahiri’s compound was declassified recently and is one of over 600 artifacts in the recently refurbished museum that is not yet open to the public, the report said.
Al Zawahiri was killed in a Hellfire precision missile strike that utilized sharp metal blades. The missile was used to take out al Zawahiri while delivering minimal structural damage to surrounding buildings or individuals who were not targeted, according to U.S. officials, who have insisted no one else was wounded.
The al Qaeda chief’s hideout was in Kabul, Afghanistan, which has led to speculation that the Taliban harbored him after toppling the U.S.-backed government nearly a year before the drone strike.
President Joe Biden announced the drone strike shortly after intelligence officials were able to confirm the strike was successful. He noted that al Zawahiri “moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family.”
“Now, justice has been delivered,” the president proclaimed. “This terrorist leader is no more.”
The strike echoed the military raid that his predecessor Barack Obama authorized in Pakistan, which killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. Al Zawahiri, who had been bin Laden’s No. 2 at the time, was elevated to the head of the terrorist organization following bin Laden’s death.
Al Zawahiri had been on the U.S. intelligence radar for decades and was credited with masterminding a number of terrorist attacks, most notably the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Biden hailed the drone strike as a demonstration of the U.S. military’s ability to conduct “over the horizon” counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan despite U.S. forces leaving the war-torn nation last year.
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While the museum is not open to the public, the CIA plans to showcase key artifacts on its website and has plans to develop a 3D tour. The museum underwent a yearlong revamp to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the formation of the CIA.
Other artifacts in the museum reportedly include drawings for the fake movie used in the 1980 rescue operation depicted in Argo and a display on the 1961 Bay of Pigs. The Washington Examiner reached out to a representative of the CIA for comment.
