Killing of Osama bin Laden

Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed by members of the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team 6 on May 2, 2011, in Pakistan. At the time, bin Laden had been hiding for six years in a walled compound in Abbottabad, a city of some 230,000 people, roughly 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Islamabad. The SEALs raided his home after midnight and shot him several times. Four other people, including one of bin Laden’s sons, also died in the raid. The killing was widely regarded as one of the greatest successes in the U.S. “war on terrorism,” though critics have argued that it had minimal long-term effects.

9/11 and the hunt for bin Laden

At the time of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001—which bin Laden oversaw—the United States had already been pursuing him for several years. In 1998 he was indicted for his role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. On September 11, 2001, within hours after the attacks, government officials identified bin Laden as the chief suspect. On September 17, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush said the al-Qaeda leader was wanted “dead or alive.” The CIA’s paramilitary wing, the Special Activities Division (now the Special Activities Center), was put in charge of the manhunt. The United States also offered a $25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden’s capture.

That fall, when the United States invaded Afghanistan, bin Laden apparently hid inside a cave complex in the mountains along the country’s eastern border. But it is believed that he slipped away in December, during the Battle of Tora Bora. From there he went to Peshawar in northern Pakistan. By early 2003 bin Laden had relocated to Pakistan’s Swat valley, where he met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the planner of the September 11 attacks. Bin Laden learned of Mohammed’s capture by U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officers in March 2003, and he went to ground, eventually resurfacing in Haripur, Pakistan. By 2005 construction had been completed on a three-story walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and bin Laden and several of his family members relocated there that summer. He fathered four children during these years.

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The U.S. government has stated that bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad without the Pakistani government’s knowledge. It has said it discovered the al-Qaeda leader’s whereabouts through years’ worth of patient intelligence gathering. Between 2002 and 2005 at least two prisoners belonging to al-Qaeda gave up information about Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, a courier who was close to bin Laden. Al-Kuwaiti was the nom de guerre of Ibrahim Ahmed, who was also known as Arshad Khan, and intelligence officials surmised that he was traveling with bin Laden. Six years later, in 2010, CIA operatives located al-Kuwaiti in Pakistan and followed him back to the compound in Abbottabad. They came to suspect that bin Laden was also living there.

However, elements of this account have been challenged by multiple sources. The New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall and journalist Seymour Hersh have both claimed that the Pakistani government knew about bin Laden’s presence and was protecting him. The two have each reported that U.S. officials learned of bin Laden’s whereabouts through a retired Pakistani intelligence officer who offered the information in exchange for the $25 million reward. Indeed, Abbottabad is home to a sizable population of retired military and intelligence officials, and the Pakistan Military Academy, Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point, is located barely a mile from the bin Laden compound. An internal Pakistani fact-finding commission concluded in 2013 that, though the Pakistani government and military were not aware of bin Laden’s presence, “direct or indirect and ‘plausibly deniable’ support cannot be ruled out, at least, at some level outside formal structures of the intelligence establishment.”

Planning and execution of the raid

During their surveillance of the Abbottabad compound, analysts identified an individual that they dubbed “the pacer,” a man of bin Laden’s height and build who walked around the grounds but never went outside the walls. Although no one could state with certainty that “the pacer” was, in fact, the world’s most wanted terrorist, by March 2011 enough evidence had been collected that military planners approached U.S. Pres. Barack Obama with a number of options. An air strike could level the entire compound, but the potential for civilian casualties was significant. A drone could specifically target “the pacer” with a much smaller munition, but that technology was not foolproof. In either of these cases, it would be almost impossible for U.S. forces to confirm that the target was actually bin Laden. The third possibility was a helicopter-borne assault by a small group of special forces personnel. Although this option would put U.S. troops in harm’s way, it offered a measure of certainty that the air strikes lacked.

Members of the assault team trained for weeks at a life-size mock-up of the Abbottabad compound in North Carolina. Operation Eagle Claw (1980), the disastrous attempted helicopter rescue of the U.S. hostages in Iran, loomed large in the collective consciousness of the planners. Thus, every effort was made to ensure that the pilots and raiders would be fully prepared for any eventuality that should arise, including active opposition from the Pakistani military. As planned, the mission would see personnel from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU; popularly known as SEAL Team 6) Red Squadron executing a “fast-rope” descent from hovering helicopters. One team was to deploy to the courtyard within the compound walls, and the other would land on the roof of the main building. The helicopters would then withdraw from the area and return once the mission had been completed.

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Obama gave the final order for the raid on April 29, 2011. Hersh has reported that the Pakistani government consented to the operation, but U.S. government officials have claimed that great effort was taken to keep it secret. However, most accounts are in agreement regarding the key facts. At 11:00 pm local time on May 1, 2011, 23 SEALs lifted off from the U.S. airbase in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, aboard a pair of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that had been modified for stealth. They were accompanied by a Pashto-speaking interpreter and a Belgian Malinois working dog named Cairo. The interpreter was tasked with keeping curious neighbors away during the raid, and Cairo and his SEAL handler would assist with external security while staying ready to help search the residence if “the pacer” could not be found. Following the insertion team were three MH-47 Chinook heavy transport helicopters; one remained just inside the Afghan border, and the other two proceeded to a staging point about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Abbottabad. These two aircraft carried additional fuel for the Black Hawks as well as a quick response team of another two dozen SEALs to be deployed if the Abbottabad force encountered significant resistance.

All of the helicopters crossed into Pakistani airspace without incident, and the Black Hawks proceeded to the target at high speed and low altitude. Once over the compound, one of the Black Hawks abruptly descended, and the pilot was forced to make a hard landing within the outer perimeter wall. The tail of the helicopter hit the wall, but none of the SEALs or air crew were injured. The plan to fast-rope was abandoned, and the second Black Hawk landed outside the compound. The SEALs forced their way through the compound’s defenses, blasting open gates and doors as they advanced. SEALs encountered al-Kuwaiti at the compound’s guest house; al-Kuwaiti was killed, and his wife was wounded.

CIA operatives in Abbottabad had cut power to the neighborhood as the raid began, and SEALs equipped with night-vision goggles breached the doors to the main house and swept inside. They shot and killed al-Kuwaiti’s brother, Abrar Ahmed, and his brother’s wife before advancing to the second floor and killing bin Laden’s 23-year-old son, Khalid. As they made their way to the third floor, members of the assault team saw a bearded male figure poke his head out of a door before retreating. There is some uncertainty about the exact sequence of events that followed. Either bin Laden was killed by shots fired from SEALs on the steps, or he was killed by multiple gunshots from SEALs as they entered his room. In any event, bin Laden was not armed at the time of his death, despite the presence of an AK-47 and a holstered Makarov pistol in his room. One of the SEAL team leaders radioed, “For God and country—Geronimo. Geronimo. Geronimo.” Geronimo was the mission code word to indicate that bin Laden had been found. A second transmission followed, clarifying, “Geronimo, EKIA” (enemy killed in action).

For the next 20 minutes the compound was a flurry of activity. Some SEALs searched bin Laden’s room and bagged his body while others destroyed sensitive equipment in the downed Black Hawk and wired it to explode. One of the forward-deployed Chinooks arrived to transport the team from the crashed Black Hawk, along with bin Laden’s body and a collection of computer equipment, hard drives, and cell phones recovered from the compound. Roughly 40 minutes after the raid began, the crashed Black Hawk was blown up, and the helicopters carrying the SEALs and bin Laden’s body lifted off.

Obama’s address and international reactions

News of the operation quickly spread, first on Twitter (now X) and then in the media. Obama announced bin Laden’s death in a televised address at 11:35 pm Eastern Daylight Time, roughly eight hours after it occurred. “For over two decades, bin Laden has been al-Qaeda’s leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies,” Obama said in his address. “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda.”

The morning after bin Laden’s death, his body was flown to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and buried in the Arabian Sea. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, John Brennan, had contacted the Saudi government about returning bin Laden’s body to his home country, but it declined the offer. U.S. officials said they opted for burial at sea because they did not want bin Laden’s grave to become a shrine. Bin Laden’s body was washed and wrapped in a white shroud in accordance with Muslim funeral rites.

Many political and religious leaders celebrated the killing, but some responded critically. Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called it “quite clearly a violation of international law,” for instance, and the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights also asked the United States for “precise facts” regarding the raid.

The incident also strained an already tenuous U.S. relationship with Pakistan, as that country had long been suspected of playing both sides in the war on Islamist extremism. The administration of Pres. Asif Ali Zardari decried the raid as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and denied that the country had sheltered bin Laden. Rankled by the U.S. failure to alert it to the bin Laden raid, the Pakistani government allowed Chinese technicians to inspect the remains of the destroyed Black Hawk that had been left at the compound. U.S. dissatisfaction with Pakistan was elevated further when a tribal court sentenced Shakil Afridi, a physician who had allegedly colluded with CIA agents in the killing of bin Laden, to a 33-year prison term (reduced to 23 years on appeal), ostensibly for having ties to the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam.