During a raid on his compound hideout in Pakistan, American forces kill Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. An extensive international manhunt had been conducted for nearly ten years in search of the notorious 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation of Islamic extremists. 23 U.S. Navy SEALs arrived at the compound in Abbottabad, a tourist and military hub north of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, at around 1 a.m. local time (4 p.m. EST on May 1, 2011, in the United States), in two Black Hawk helicopters. Although one of the helicopters crashed into the compound, nobody inside was hurt.
Five people were killed by American gunfire during the raid, which lasted about 40 minutes and included the death of bin Laden and one of his adult sons. In the assault, no Americans were hurt. Less than 24 hours after his death, bin Laden’s body was buried in the Arabian Sea in accordance with Islamic custom after being transported by helicopter to Afghanistan for official identification. President Barack Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden in a televised address from the White House at approximately 11:30 p.m. EST on May 1 (Pakistan’s time zone is nine hours ahead of Washington, D.C.). Obama had been following the raid in real-time via video captured by a drone flying high above Abbottabad. “Justice has been done,” the president said. After hearing the news, jubilant crowds gathered in front of the White House, in Times Square, and at Ground Zero in New York City.
Discoveries
Based on computer files and other evidence the SEALs gathered during the raid, it was later discovered that bin Laden was preparing to kill President Obama and carry out a number of other attacks against the United States, including one on the anniversary of September 11, the deadliest terrorist attack to take place on American soil, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives. President George W. Bush pledged that bin Laden would be captured soon after the 9/11 attacks, dead or alive. Bin Laden was born in 1957 to a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia and used his multi-million dollar inheritance to help found Al Qaeda and finance its operations.
In December of that year, American-backed forces in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora region came very close to capturing bin Laden there, but he escaped and would elude American authorities for years. C.I.A. analysts followed the terrorist leader’s courier to the Abbottabad compound, which was concealed behind high-security walls in a residential area, in August 2010, which marked a significant development in the hunt for bin Laden. (American intelligence officials observed the compound over the ensuing months, but until the raid, they were unsure whether bin Laden was present.)
Many Americans were shocked to learn that the most infamous fugitive in the world had likely spent the last five years of his life in a well-populated area less than a mile from an elite Pakistani military academy. The U.S. media had long reported that bin Laden was thought to be hiding in the remote tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border. There was no concrete evidence to support this, but some American officials suspected Pakistani authorities of helping to shelter bin Laden in Abbottabad after the raid, which the United States reportedly carried out without informing the Pakistani government in advance.
