NOT-SO-SAFE HOUSE: With the Americans gone and a friendly Taliban in charge, 71-year-old al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri felt comfortable enough to move back into the tony Sherpur area of downtown Kabul, into a “safe house” owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani.

U.S. intelligence located him in April, and on Sunday, two Hellfire missiles fired from a CIA drone struck al Zawahiri as he stepped out onto the balcony of the mansion, killing the man who — as deputy of Osama bin Laden and later his successor — was instrumental in conducting deadly attacks against U.S. citizens, including the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, and the 2001 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.