Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. helicopter raid on a mansion near the Pakistani capital Islamabad early on Monday, ending a long worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Members of an elite Navy Seals team dropped by helicopter to the compound were under orders to kill not capture bin Laden, who had eluded U.S. forces for 13 years, a senior U.S. security official told Reuters."This was a kill operation," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Many analysts see bin Laden's death as largely symbolic since he was no longer believed to have been issuing operational orders to the many autonomous al Qaeda affiliates around the world.Last week, al Qaeda issued its annual Christmas threat to the United States, promising suicide bombings during the holidays. Here’s a better idea for a Christmas present from al Qaeda: a video showing Osama bin Laden – or his grave.
Is bin Laden dead or alive? Nobody seems to know for sure, or, if anybody does, he isn’t saying. The White House’s Afghanistan-Pakistan review this month didn’t even mention him despite an ongoing, decade-long manhunt.
President Barack Obama, whose popularity has been hit hard by rising gasoline prices, will likely see a short-term bounce in his approval ratings. But he may also come under more pressure from Americans to speed up a planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials said bin Laden was found in a million-dollar compound in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, 35 miles north of Islamabad. After 40 minutes of fighting, bin Laden was among several people in the mansion killed.
A source familiar with the operation said bin Laden was shot in the head. A senior U.S. official in Washington said the al Qaeda leader was killed in a firefight after he resisted the assault force.
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