Osama bin LadenU.S. commandos kill Osama bin Laden
In a brilliant commando operation deep inside Pakistan, a Navy Seal team killed Osama bin Laden then took his body to an American military base in Afghanistan for DNA verification of his identity; the DNA matched; the operation got underway last August when information was gathered showing bin Laden hiding in a compound in a small Pakistani town 150 km north of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital; President Obama gave the go-ahead to the operation on Friday, 29 April; in addition to Bin Laden, three other men were killed in the operation, including one of Bin Laden’s sons — and a woman who was used by the men as human shield
In a brilliant special forces operation deep inside Pakistan, U.S. Navy Seals yesterday (Sunday) attacked a compound in the town of Abbottabad, killed al Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden, and took his body to an American military base in Afghanistan for DNA analysis.
The operation was carried out by a team of Navy Seals who arrived at the location by helicopters. The operation lasted less than forty minutes. One of the helicopters crashed on its way to the target owing to mechanical failure. American soldiers were not injured in the crash, and the helicopter was destroyed to prevent al Qaeda from gaining any intelligence information from sifting through the wreckage.
The operation killed three adult males in addition to Bin Laden — one of the dead was Bin Laden’s son — and a female resident of the compound who was used as a human shield by the men.
President Barack Obama, who made the announcement late Sunday evening in a live speech to the nation, revealed that information about Bin Laden’s whereabouts was discovered last August, and that in the months since, as the information was ascertained and augmented, contingency plans were developed for yesterday’s raid.
President Obama gave to go-ahead for the operation on Friday, 29 April.
The Pakistani NDTV reports that on 25 January this year, Pakistani forces arrested another wanted terrorist who was hiding in Abbottabad — Umar Patek, an al Qaeda-linked Indonesian militant who, for ten years, had been on the run from a $1 million bounty on his head. Patek allegedly helped build the bombs used in the 2002 bombings of nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people.
The Pakistanis kept Patek’s arrest a secret until 1 April, when the Associated Press came out with the story.
It is not known whether Patek had knowledge of Bin Laden’s presence in the town, and if he did, whether or not he shared that information with his captors.
The town of Abbottabad – a mid-size town of 81,000 residents — is situated in the Orash Valley, 150 km north of Islamabad and 200 km east of Peshawar. The city is known for its beautiful vistas (it is located at an altitude of 4,120 feet, or1,260 meter), its pleasant weather, high standard educational institutions, and military establishments.
Bin Laden lived in a compound which was built in 2005. It was the largest estates in the town, was surrounded by security walls 12- and 18-ft tall
