The US military is quietly killing terrorist leaders in Syria with its secret missile packed with swords

• The US military has been quietly eliminating terrorist leaders in Syria with the Hellfire AGM-114R9X, a non-explosive Hellfire missile that kills its enemies by crushing them with 100 pounds of metal or by cutting them apart with the swords stored inside.
• The most recent strike, according to The New York Times, was about two weeks ago and eliminated a senior attack planner for al Qaeda.
• The R9X, a weapon designed to reduce civilian casualties, first became public knowledge when The Wall Street Journal reported its existence in May 2019, but its development began years earlier.
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The US military has been quietly taking out terrorist leaders in Syria with a modified Hellfire missile packed full of swords, The New York Times reported Friday.

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Thursday, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Christopher Miller revealed that in Syria, “Hurras al-Din — a group made up of several al Qaeda veterans — has suffered successive losses of key leaders and operatives.”

And, the secretive Hellfire AGM-114R9X missile, a US weapon typically referred to as the R9X, reportedly played a role in some of those losses.

On Sept. 14, a US Reaper drone operated by special operations forces killed Sayyaf al-Tunsi, a senior attack planner for al Qaeda and its affiliates, with an R9X, The New York Times reported, citing US military and counterterrorism officials, who said that the hit would disrupt Hurras al-Din operations.

Following an R9X strike in June believed to have killed two Hurras al-Din members, the most recent strike marks at least the second time in three months the weapon has been used.

The R9X, The Times reports, has proven useful for targeting terrorist leaders in urban areas, where they assume the US is more hesistant to engage due to the heightened risk of civilian casualties.

The so-called “Ninja Bomb” or “Flying Ginsu,” a modified Hellfire equipped with a non-explosive warhead that kills enemies with 100 pounds of metal, sheer force, and six blades, first became public knowledge when The Wall Street Journal reported its existence in May 2019.

The weapon’s development began during the Obama administration as an airstrike armament less likely to kill civilians than other battlefield options.

—Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) May 9, 2019

At the time of The Wall Street Journal report, it was believed that the US had used the weapon only about half a dozen times.

It is suspected to have been used to kill Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, a top al Qaeda leader, in Syria in February 2017 and Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali al-Badawi, the al Qaeda operative who masterminded the deadly bombing of the USS Cole, in Yemen in February 2019.

There have been several other suspected R9X strikes since then.

The New York Times reports that while explosive Hellfire missiles are preferred for groups of terrorist targets, the non-explosive R9X is the “weapon of choice” for eliminating leaders and other high-value targets who are traveling alone.