safe house. the president stressed his death sends a message. 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. administration is now warning that the taliban could face consequences for harboring al say al-zawahri. president biden meeting the situation room discussing the operation to kill al-zawahri. let s bring in john harwood at the white house. this was in the works for months and months, remarkable intelligence gathering operation given it had to be taking place largely from outside the country since the u.s. doesn t have boots on the ground there. tell us what you re learning. reporter: meticulous plan very tightly held. it began when they began to point tort ayman al c-zawahri being in kawabul. he was known to be there in april. they began to build a profile of his movements and how they could strike him. you saw the photo from july when they finally had taken to biden
since the u.s. doesn t have boots on the ground there. tell us what you re learning. reporter: meticulous plan very tightly held. it began when they began to point tort ayman al c-zawahri being in kawabul. he was known to be there in april. they began to build a profile of his movements and how they could strike him. you saw the photo from july when they finally had taken to biden with all of this top national security advisors inside the box in the photo was a scale model of the house that zawahri was staying in in kabul. the president was concerned to avoid civilian casualties and wanted a strike not to cause the house to fall down compromising structural integrity. that s what happened according to u.s. officials. he was the only person killed and they did not take out the