It is not yet clear how long the Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri had been in Afghanistan, but his presence there had been widely rumoured for some time.
The US intelligence indicates that the house where Al-Zawahri was living with his family was owned by a top aide of senior Taliban leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani.
According to the Associated Press (AP), it could be that someone among the Taliban "snitched on" the former eye surgeon and his family.