“The CIA had its first chance [to kill al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri] on Feb. 28, 2003. Former intelligence officials say al-Zawahri met that day in a car with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, in Peshawar [Pakistan]. Al-Zawahri, a former official said, was on his way to the remote northern tribal region. The former officials say the CIA was pursuing Mohammed at the time, but did not have a fix on him until an informant sent a text message to a CIA handler the next day that he was in Rawalpindi, about 110 miles to the east. Pakistan’s spy service, which was working with the CIA, moved in and captured Mohammed. By then, al-Zawahri was gone.”
– Adam Goldman and Kathy Gannon, “U.S. Nearly Killed Al-Zawahiri, Officials Say,” Associated Press, Nov. 29, 2010