US aid worker lived in same house where al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri was killed

A US government aid project official named Dan Smock was surprised when he saw the images of the balcony where al-Qaeda chief and the world's most wanted terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone attack.

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After some moments, it struck Smock that it was the balcony of the same house where he lived when working as an aid officer in Kabul. Smock, a US military veteran, was working as a civilian in the country when staying at the cream-coloured house with green-mirrored balcony walls.

Smock stated that he liked to stand in the balcony and overlook the mountains which would be visible after the Kabul morning smog had disappeared. And according to US intel inputs,al-Zawahiri too liked standing in the balcony and soaking in the view.

An incredibly surreal feeling: Smock

Stating that it was an incrediblysurreal feeling, Smock said that he was still coming to terms with the reality that a man who plotted and executed the 9/11 attack alongside Osama bin Laden, was living in the same room that he once lived in.

"Things change, and things change quickly, but at that level? That’s a little intense. You’ve got public enemy number one, with a $25m bounty on his head, literally living in the same space you lived in previously,” said Smock in an interview with The Guardian.

Read more:US kills Al-Qaeda terror group chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan drone strike

Smock also revealed that why al-Zawahiri choose to ditch his hideouts and live in a residential place. Reportedly, the house is in a quiet, closed-off neighbourhood with only two entrances. If one is able to control those entrances, the whole neighbourhood can be controlled.

al-Zawahiri and his men thought that they had control on the ground. However, trouble came in the form of a drone.

al-Zawahiri's death

As reported by WION, on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden announced that the US military had killedbin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone strike in the capital city of Kabul over the weekend

Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head was responsible for the killing of nearly 3,000 civilians who were killed in the 9/11 terror attacks organised by his terrorist outfit.

Laden was considered the mastermind of the attacks and Zawahiri, who posed as his physician, helped him in the execution of his deadly plan.

(With inputs from agencies)

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