Bin Laden Dead
WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden, is dead, and the U.S. is in possession of his body, a person familiar with the situation said late Sunday.
President Barack Obama was expected to address the nation on the developments Sunday night.
It was unclear where how bin Laden was killed and how the U.S. captured his body. Officials have long believed bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was hiding a mountainous region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president.
Posted May 01, 2011
Full Text: Obama's remarks on the killing of bin Laden: - Text of remarks by President Barack Obama Sunday night announcing the killing of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, as transcribed by the White House.
What we know about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden
By Neil Munro
May 02, 2011 "The Daily Caller" -- In September 2010, intelligence officials began an assessment that suggested Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in a Pakistani compound. By mid-February, the U.S. “had determined there was a sound intelligence basis for this,” said an Obama administration official. From mid-March, the president held five meetings to consider ways “to bring justice to bin Laden,” said the official.
Several years ago, interrogators had persuaded detainees to reveal an individual who worked as a trusted courier for bin Laden. After several years, officials gradually learned more about the courier, and identified his residence in August 2010, in the town of Abbottabad, about 60 miles north of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. The compound is large, and was built in 2005 at the end of a long road. The compound has walls up to 18 feet high, which are topped by barbed wire, interior walls, few windows, and two security gates. Despite its cost, the compound had no telephone or internet communications, and no trash pick-up, even though many people lived there.
The compound was raided by a helicopter-borne force. Officials shared little about the attack, but noted that the raid was designed to cause little collateral damage. The 40-minute raid killed four other people, including two couriers, one of bin Laden’s sons and a women who was used as a shield. One of two U.S. helicopters was destroyed after it malfunctioned.
U.S. officials conducted the raid without alerting any Pakistanis.
Officials did not say if the team consisted of soldiers or intelligence-agents. Bin Laden did resist and was killed in a firefight. His body will be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition, said a White House official. “This is something we take seriously,” the official said.
The killing of Al Qaeda’s “emir” will be a major help in destroying Al Qaeda, said White House officials. His likely successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, will likely have difficulty maintaining the group, whose jihadis and donors are mostly Gulf Arabs. Al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian.
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