CIA unveils model of al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri’s hideout

The CIA on Saturday revealed the model of a safe house used to brief President Joe Biden about the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri before it killed him in a drone strike in Afghanistan.

Shortly after al-Zawahiri’s death, White House officials released a photo showing Biden talking to CIA Director William Burns with a closed wooden box on the table in front of them, AP reported.

Now, the contents of the box — a model depicting a white-walled home with at least five stories and three partially obscured balconies — are on display at the CIA Museum inside the agency’s Virginia headquarters.

The museum is closed to the public and access is generally limited to the agency’s employees and guests. The CIA allowed journalists to tour the museum, newly refurbished in time for the agency’s 75th anniversary, as part of a broader effort to showcase its history and achievements, AP reported.

Most of the exhibits took years or decades to declassify. The al-Zawahiri model home is the rare artifact that had been used by intelligence officers just weeks beforehand.

Al-Zawahiri was killed in late July, nearly a year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ending a two-decade war in which the CIA had a central role.

The Biden administration has said the strike shows it retains what it calls an “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism capacity in Afghanistan, AP reported.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) have however said the US’s claims of having killed al-Zawahiri are simply allegations as they were not aware of his presence in Kabul.

Following the drone strike, the IEA launched an investigation into the incident. They also called on the US to provide them with evidence of his death.