By: Warren Gray
Copyright © 2024
“We’ve moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles…to a true, hunter-killer role with the Reaper.”
— U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Michael T. Mosely, 2006
“Of course it’s a violation of international law;
that’s why it’s a covert action!”
— Vice President Al Gore, 1993
On August 24, 2022, Gunpowder Magazine published my article entitled, “Covert Ops: CIA Drone Kills al-Qa’ida Terrorist Leader,” about the targeted killing of al-Qa’ida terrorist leader Doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri by a CIA drone on July 31, 2022.
More recently, on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, at 9:30 PM local time, a CIA-operated, General Atomics MQ-9A Block 5 ER (Extended Range), Reaper attack drone killed Kataib Hezbollah terrorist leader Wissam Muhammad Sabir al-Saadi, known as Abu Baqr al-Saadi, in downtown Baghdad, Iraq.
The Reaper drone was likely based at Ain al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, only 115 miles from downtown Baghdad. The latest GoogleEarth satellite imagery, dated September 6, 2022, very clearly shows two gray MQ-9A Reaper drones parked near the north side of the airfield.
An MQ-9A Block 5 ER Reaper with two external fuel tanks carries four Hellfire missiles, and in this case, as well as the al-Zawahiri incident from 2022, the weapon of choice was the AGM-114R9X Hellfire II missile, also called the “Ninja Bomb” or the “Flying Ginsu,” with no actual warhead, but six razor-sharp, pop-out blades, instead of explosives, to limit collateral damage.
Both the U.S. Air Force and the CIA operate MQ-9A Reaper attack drones, but the Air Force typically targets military objectives, while the CIA engages in assassinations of enemy leaders, so most likely, this was a secret CIA mission to eliminate al-Saadi.
Abu Baqr al-Saadi was largely responsible for his Iranian-backed terrorist group’s recent attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, where a January 28th attack on a base killed three American soldiers. There have been at least 170 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan since October 7, 2023.
The R9X Hellfire II travels at Mach 1.3 in level flight, or at least Mach 1.5 in a dive. It’s about five feet long, and weighs 100 pounds, with a range of up to 6.8 miles. So, it’s a kinetic-kill weapon, accurate to within less than one foot on the ground, and therefore, can target individual terrorists with great precision, and with no collateral damage.
In 2017, the United States fired an R9X missile at Abu Khayr al-Masri, a senior al-Qa’ida leader in Syria. In 2019, another R9X was used against Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Al-Badawi, the mastermind behind the USS Cole bombing, killing him in Yemen where he was hiding. Also, an R9X was reportedly used in the 2020 killing of a local al-Qa’ida leader in Syria. Estimates on the number of strikes carried out with this new missile range from six to 10 times. The 2022 al-Zawahiri assassination was the first drone attack since American forces departed chaotically from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The non-explosive AGM-114R9X Hellfire II is ideal for targeting individual, enemy leaders in crowded cities, dropping 100 pounds of steel through the roof of his car with unerring, laser-guided precision, and then mercilessly slicing and dicing him with the equivalent of six pop-out, samurai swords at least a foot long, at supersonic speed.
The February 2024 drone strike instantly killed al-Saadi and two of his bodyguards, and burned and badly damaged his SUV. The U.S. Central Command stated that the attack had killed the “commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region…(and) There are no indications of collateral damage or civilian casualties at this time.”
The United States still has 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq, and a further 900 in neighboring Syria, according to the Pentagon, so any planned withdrawal of forces from Iraq likely would affect the U.S. presence in Syria, as well. Meanwhile, the very precise, targeted killing of Abu Baqr al-Saadi serves as a well-deserved retaliation for all of the recent terrorist attacks against American troops in the volatile Middle East.
* * *
Warren Gray is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism. He served in Europe and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author and historian.