addressing the nation from the blue room balcony at the white house where he is in isolation with rebound covid case. the cleric, that justice has been delivered. and warning that the united states will defend the american people. no matter how long it takes. no matter where you hide. if you are a threat to our people the united states will find you and take you out. we are also learning some more tonight about how it all went down. ayman al-zawahiri, children what was being called a precise tailored airstrike. using to hellfire missiles fired at the balcony of a safe house in kabul. at 9:40 pm eastern time. it happened on saturday. the president thank you kate final trouble for a patient a week ago after months of highly secret planning. one official is telling cnn that members of his family, who are in other areas of the house, were not harmed. he helped mastermind the deadly terror attack on american soil alongside osama bin laden, when planes crashed into the world tr
also military analyst retired general mark hertling. and philip mudd. good evening gentlemen. appreciate you joining us. let s start with alex. what are you learning tonight about this mission and how it went down? well don, this was a remarkable and complex mission. we ve got a lot of the details from a senior administration official who spoke to reporters shortly before president biden spoke with the nation. now this was months in the making. it was back in april when president biden s first briefed on the fact that the war was believed to be, not just in afghanistan, but in the afghan capital of kabul. in that city. living there he was told that members, his wife, his daughter, his grandchildren. now the intelligence community believes that he never left the house. that it was only as family members who went out. that is wife and daughter use what this administration called a terrorism trade craft to make sure that they weren t tracked or detect it. now they failed on
our top story tonight. u.s. killing up osama bin laden second in command. president biden announcing that the al-qaeda leader, ayman worry, was killed in a drone strike in afghanistan s capital. one week ago. after being advised of the conditions were optimal i gave. the final approval to go get him. and the mission was a success. none of his family members were hurt. there are no civilian casualties. i am sharing this news to the american people now after confirming the mission is a total success through the painstaking work of our counterterrorism community and key allies and partners. the updating us most wanted terrorist tonight with the word, deceased. want to bring on cnn national security correspondent, alex marquardt.