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| Osama bin laden |
Washington: US president Barack Obama said bin Laden, the most-wanted fugitive on the US list, has been killed on Sunday in a US operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 150 km north of Islamabad.
"Tonight, I can report to the people of the United States and the world, the United States had carried an operation that has killed Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist responsible for killing
thousands of innocent people," Obama said in a statement."Today, at my direction, the United States carried out that operation... they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.
"The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date against al-Qaeda.
"We must also reaffirm that United states is not and will never be at war against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader, in fact, he slaughtered many Muslims," Obama said
Acting on an intelligence lead that surfaced last August, Obama said he authorized an operation to kill bin Laden, 53, who was hiding in a compound deep inside Pakistan. In a rare Sunday night address to the nation, the president said U.S. forces killed bin Laden during a firefight and had his body, ending a 10-year search for the most-wanted terrorist in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan according to Washington Post.
Obama said the operation took place in Abbottabad, a city of about 100,000 in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 100 miles north of Islamabad. Named for a British military officer who founded it as a military cantonment and summer retreat, it is the headquarters of a brigade of the Pakistan Army’s 2nd Division.
A senior U.S. official who had been briefed on the operation for months said special operations forces went in on the ground to conduct the mission. “We’ve been staring at the compound for months trying to figure out for sure whether we had enough to go with,” the official said.
Obama said he had instructed Leon Panetta, the CIA chief who last week was nominated to succeed Robert M. Gates as defense secretary, to make the capture and killing of bin Laden the top priority of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
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| Osama bin laden killed in AbbotAbad Pakistan |
Obama said that he was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden’s whereabouts in August 2010 but that it took U.S. intelligence officials “many months” to run down the lead.
In the months leading up to the killing, Obama took charge of monitoring the operation at the White House, chairing five meetings of his National Security Council for updates, senior administration officials said.
U.S. officials did not share with foreign governments any details about the operation before it took place, a senior administration official said, including with Pakistan, whose leaders were informed after the raid.
Only a “very small number” of people within the U.S. government knew about it, the senior official said.
The operation, according to senior officials who briefed reporters early Monday morning, hinged almost entirely on the hunt for a single man: a courier operating out of Pakistan who had been trusted by bin Laden for years.
Using information from detainees in U.S. custody, U.S. analysts and operatives spent years figuring out the courier’s identity, concluding that he was a former protege of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The courier “in particular had our constant attention,” the official said.
Detainees “identified this man as one of the few al-Qaeda couriers trusted by bin Laden, indicated he might be living with or protecting bin Laden,” the official said. But for years, the United States was unable to track him down or uncover his real name, which did not happen until four years ago. Two years ago, U.S. officials narrowed down the region in Pakistan where the courier was working, senior administration officials said.
Then, in August, U.S. officials found the compound that turned out to be bin Laden’s hiding spot. It was described as an extraordinary place, custom-made for him, with 12- to 18-foot security walls, multiple interior walls dividing the property and massive privacy walls blocking even a third-story balcony. Despite being valued at $1 million, the property had no Internet or phone service, the official said.
By mid-February, Obama determined that there was sound intelligence for pursuing the lead, a senior administration official said, and he gave a final order to pursue the military operation on the morning of April 29.
“Today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people,” Obama said. “The cause of securing our country is not complete, but tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever it is we set our mind to. That is the story of our history.”
The Obama administration is considering burying bin Laden’s body at sea, to prevent the creation of a shrine to the al-Qaeda leader, an administration official said.
On the other hand Taliban has according to media announced that Osama Bin Laden is still alive.
An other astonishing thing is Pakistan Government and Army is still silent on the issue of Osama bin Laden. One more issue is that out of four one helicopter was destroyed in operation and Americans are claiming that no american soldier was killed in operation, than who was on board that helicopter. The above questions are still answerable.
