that s when officials began planning the strike. in a july 1st meeting, officials used a model of the terrorist leader s safe house to brief president biden on the possible risk to civilians. then, in a meeting on july 25th, the president authorized a strike, telling officials to carry it out when the time was optimal. that time came friday night, here in the u.s., saturday morning, in kabul, when the terrorist was hit by two hell-fire missiles, the u.s. did not warn the taliban that the government of afghanistan ahead of the strike. joining us now, senior correspondent for yahoo news, michael weiss, thanks for being here this morning. let s start with just the significance of this killing. al qaeda diminished organization, to where it was back in 2001, certainly highly symbolic, because of the role al zawahiri played in the september 11th attacks but still an important piece taken off the battlefield, yes? absolutely. not only was he the leader of al
zawahiri. the 71-year-old took over as leader of the terror group after u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s killed bin laden in 2011. he was involved in planning the 9/11 attacks and as well as the u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania. the drone strike happened sunday morning local time in that afghanistan after months of surveillance and planning, two hell fire missiles hitting the balacony of al zawahiri safe house. president biden was first briefed on al zawahiri s location in april and then spent months with cabinet members and advisers planning the strike. after relentlessly seeking al zawahiri for years under presidents bush, obama and trump, our intelligence community located him earlier
al-zawahiri in afghanistan. cbs catherine herridge has the new details on how the decades-long manhunt finally came to an end. reporter: smoke rose after two hell fire missiles used by the u.ted assassinations, rained down on ayman al-zawahiri. after the drone strike, green tarps hung from a building where it s believed he spent his final moments before he was killed on a balcony. americans can feel safer today now that the leader of al qaeda, ayman al-zawahiri, is off the battlefield. reporter: within with a $25 million bounty on his head, the al qaeda s whereabouts was a lingering mystery for u.s. intelligence. earlier this year, the terrorist leader was tracked down to the busy afghanicalital of kabul. after an intelligence briefing where he saw the safe house, he authorized the strike. this mission was carefully planned, minimized the risk of harm to other civilians. reporter: the fact that
internet age. now it will be interesting to see what happens next. there s a void and somebody has to step into it. it could be someone with talent and energy. or it could be what we ve seen recently, which is a scattered, disbursed organization without strong leadership. it remains to be seen. general, according to initial reports there was no collateral damage, a semantic way of saying innocent people killed in an attack. it seems as though these hell fire missiles, they didn t have an explosive head on it. it seems as though there s high-tech weaponry being used to take out these people. the sophistication of this particular operation cannot be understated. so when you take a look at in the past where you had u.s. special forces going in or other
you re both eligible. i hope you both find amazing women to spend the rest of your life with. and we ll have a reality show. we ll talk about it when the micks are off. if you stay with the tv, how about julie and bill. bill: thank you, guys, fox news alert now. osama bin laden s number two killed in a drone strike in kabul, afghanistan. two hell fire missiles hitting the terror leader who orchestrated the attacks of 9/11. a pinpoint attack over the weekend. he was standing in the open on a balcony in a safe house in central kabul. now his long reign is over. get a live report in moments about how this all went down. meanwhile happening at this moment all eyes on taiwan, the country could be hours away