Osama bin Laden Killed
Osama bin Laden was killed by American special forces at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the early hours of 2 May 2011, nearly ten years after the attacks of 11 September. He had been located not by interrogation of his own network but by tracking a courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, whose name had emerged from detainee reporting years earlier and who was followed to a walled compound in a garrison town about a mile from Pakistan's principal military academy. The building had no telephone or internet connection, burned its rubbish, and had unusually high walls and an occupant who never left. Intelligence never confirmed his presence directly; Barack Obama authorised the raid on a probability estimate his advisers put variously between 40 and 95 per cent. Two dozen Navy SEALs flew in from Afghanistan in stealth-modified Black Hawks. One crashed on landing in the courtyard and was destroyed on departure. Bin Laden was shot on the third floor. Four others in the compound were killed. Pakistan was not informed, which its government treated as a violation of sovereignty and which Washington regarded as unavoidable. His body was taken to the USS Carl Vinson, identified by DNA, and buried at sea within twenty-four hours to comply with Islamic practice and to prevent a shrine. No photographs were released. Al-Qaeda's core had already been degraded, and the Islamic State soon eclipsed it. The raid did not end the Afghan war, which continued for a further decade. Documents taken from the compound showed him still trying to direct operations and frustrated by his affiliates' behaviour. The relationship between Washington and Islamabad never fully recovered.
- Year: 2011 CE
- Category: Military
