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News broke late last night that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. operation in Abottabad, Pakistan. White House officials told the National Journal the mission was carried out by SEAL Team Six, one of the two known Black Ops units—the other being a branch of Delta Force.
Just before midnight on May 1, President Barack Obama made a live announcement that “the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”
The mission was carried out based on evidence collected by the CIA. A “small team of Americans” was sent in, a firefight broke out, and bin Laden was killed, according to Obama. The SEAL team captured bin Laden’s body as evidence.
Obama said he received news of the potential location last August “after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community.
“It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. ... And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.”
Residents in Pakistan tweeted the raid as it happened. From the sounds of it, the locals knew the Abottabad compound was a terrorist camp. ReallyVirtual, the man now tagged with having tweeted the mission, wrote, “Since taliban [probably] don’t have helicopters, and since they’re saying it was not ”our“, so it must be a complicated situation.”
By 1 a.m. the helicopter was hovering over the target. It was preceded by two blasts, one big enough to shake the windows of ReallyVirtual’s home, he noted.
One of the helicopters had a “mechanical failure” and the team destroyed it on site, according to the National Journal. The incident was reported by Pakistan News as a helicopter crash near the “biggest military academy of Kakool, in Abbottabad.” It adds, “Security forces have surrounded the place and investigations are underway.”
After the incident and after being re-tweeted all over the Web, ReallyVirtual stated “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who live blogged the Osama raid without knowing it.”
CIA director Leon Panetta released a statement, saying no members of the team were killed in the raid.
According to Panetta, the lead on bin Laden’s location came after years of “clandestine operations. ... One operation would yield intelligence that was carefully analyzed and then used to drive further operations.”
He states “Though bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda is not. The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must—and will—remain vigilant and resolute. But we have struck a heavy blow against the enemy.”
