The killing of al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri by the United States is elevating a number of questions on the weapons capabilities possessed by the nation. As per the AFP report, al-Zawahiri was killed by two missiles fired at his Kabul dwelling — however footage confirmed no signal of an explosion, and US officers say nobody else was harmed.
This reveals that the US used the macabre Hellfire R9X, a warhead-less missile believed to be geared up with six razor-like blades extending from the fuselage that slices by its goal however doesn’t explode, to kill him.
The Hellfire R9X, additionally referred to as the “ninja bomb”, has change into the US munition of alternative for killing leaders of extremist teams whereas avoiding civilian casualties.
The R9X first appeared in March 2017 when al-Qaeda senior chief Abu al-Khayr al-Masri was killed by a drone strike whereas travelling in a automobile in Syria. However, Pentagon or CIA — the 2 US businesses identified to undertake focused assassinations of extremist leaders — have by no means publicly acknowledged it.
What is the Hellfire R9X?
As per The Week, the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles are air-to-ground, laser-guided, subsonic missiles with important anti-tank capability. The Hellfire missiles have a number of variants, relying on its warhead, steering system, and its bodily variations. A modern and peculiar addition to the road of Hellfire missiles is the Hellfire R9X that makes use of pop-out sword blades to kill targets with minimal collateral injury—designed for focused killings. According to Al Arabia, this may occasionally have been the variant of the Hellfire missile used to assassinate Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Also, in response to the Wall Street Journal, the R9X, which was developed reportedly underneath the Obama administration, with deal with decreasing civilian casualties, “comes equipped with a different kind of payload: a halo of six long blades that are stowed inside and then deploy through the skin of the missile seconds before impact to ensure that it shreds anything in its tracks”. Unlike a standard Hellfire missile, it not often left any marks—no scorches, or burns aside from cracks or factors of entry.
Al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born surgeon who assumed the management of al-Qaida after the killing of Osama bin Laden, died at 71 in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. Zawahiri had a $25 million bounty on his head and who helped coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults that killed almost 3,000 individuals.
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