Killing of Osama Bin Laden

Execution of the operation

Approach and entry

Diagram of Osama bin Laden's hideout, showing the high concrete walls that surround the compound

The raid was carried out by approximately two dozen heliborne U.S. Navy SEALs from DEVGRU's Red Squadron. For legal reasons (namely that the U.S. was not at war with Pakistan), the military personnel assigned to the mission were temporarily transferred to the control of the civilian Central Intelligence Agency.[68][69]

The SEALs operated in teams and used weapons including the HK416[70] assault rifle (their primary weapon), the Mark 48 machine gun for fire support, and the MP7[55] personal defense weapon used by some SEALs for close quarters and greater silence.

According to The New York Times, a total of "79 commandos and a dog" were involved in the raid.[36] The military working dog[71] was a Belgian Malinois named Cairo.[72][73] According to one report, the dog was tasked with tracking "anyone who tried to escape and to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces".[74] The dog was to be used to help deter any Pakistani ground response to the raid and to help look for any hidden rooms or hidden doors in the compound.[55] Additional personnel on the mission included a language interpreter,[74] the dog handler, helicopter pilots, plus intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers to view the operation.[65]

The SEALs flew into Pakistan from a staging base in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan after originating at Bagram Air Base in northeastern Afghanistan.[75] The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), a U.S. Army Special Operations Command unit known as the "Night Stalkers", provided the two modified Black Hawk helicopters[76] that were used for the raid itself, as well as the much larger Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that were employed as backups.[53][65][74]

The Black Hawks were previously unseen "stealth" versions that flew more quietly and were harder to detect on radar than conventional models;[77][78] due to the extra weight of the stealth equipment, their cargo was "calculated to the ounce, with the weather factored in."[74]

The Chinooks kept on standby were on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way" from Jalalabad to Abbottabad, with two additional SEAL teams consisting of approximately 24 DEVGRU operators[74] for a "quick reaction force" (QRF). The Chinooks were equipped with 7.62mm GAU-17/A miniguns and GAU-21/B .50-caliber machine guns and extra fuel for the Black Hawks. Their mission was to interdict any Pakistani military attempts to interfere with the raid. Other Chinooks, holding 25 more SEALs from DEVGRU, were stationed just across the border in Afghanistan in case reinforcements were needed during the operation.[55]

The 160th SOAR helicopters were supported by an array of other aircraft, to include fixed-wing fighter jets and drones.[79] According to CNN, "the Air Force had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters available".[79]

The raid was scheduled for a time with little moonlight so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and undetected".[80] The helicopters used hilly terrain and nap-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on radar and alerting the Pakistani military. The flight from Jalalabad to Abbottabad took about 90 minutes.[55]

According to the mission plan, the first helicopter would hover over the compound's yard while its full team of SEALs fast-roped to the ground. At the same time, the second helicopter would fly to the northeast corner of the compound and deploy the interpreter, the dog and handler, and four SEALs to secure the perimeter. The team in the courtyard was to enter the house from the ground floor.[55][81]

As they hovered above the target the first helicopter experienced a hazardous airflow condition known as a vortex ring state. This was aggravated by higher than expected air temperature[55][73] and the high compound walls, which stopped the rotor downwash from diffusing.[73][82][83] The helicopter's tail grazed one of the compound's walls,[84] damaging its tail rotor,[85] and the helicopter rolled onto its side.[22] The pilot quickly buried the helicopter's nose to keep it from tipping over.[74] None of the SEALs, crew, or pilots on the helicopter were seriously injured in the soft crash landing, which ended with it pitched at a 45-degree angle resting against the wall.[55] The other helicopter landed outside the compound and the SEALs scaled the walls to get inside.[86] The SEALs advanced into the house, breaching walls and doors with explosives.[74]

 

Entry into the house

The U.S. national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to monitor the progress of Operation Neptune Spear

The SEALs encountered the residents in the compound's guest house, in its main building on the first floor where two adult males lived, and on the second and third floors where bin Laden lived with his family. The second and third floors were the last section of the compound to be cleared.[87] There were reportedly "small knots of children ... on every level, including the balcony of bin Laden's room".[74]

Osama bin Laden was killed in the raid[88] and initial versions said three other men and a woman were killed as well: bin Laden's adult son Khalid,[89][90] bin Laden's courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, and Abrar's wife Bushra.[55]

Conflicting reports of an initial firefight exist. Mark Owen's book states that the team were in a "short firefight" before reaching bin Laden.[91] An intelligence official told Seymour Hersh in 2015 that no firefight took place. In the earlier versions, Al-Kuwaiti is said to have opened fire on the first team of SEALs with an AK-47 from behind the guesthouse door, lightly injuring a SEAL with bullet fragments. A short firefight took place between al-Kuwaiti and the SEALs, in which al-Kuwaiti was killed.[4][92] His wife Mariam was allegedly shot and wounded in the right shoulder.[93][94] The courier's male relative Abrar was then said to have been shot and killed by the SEALs' second team on the first floor of the main house as shots had already been fired and the SEALs thought that he was armed with a loaded AK-47 (this was later confirmed to be true in the official report).[95] A woman near him, later identified as Abrar's wife Bushra, was in this version also shot and killed. Bin Laden's young adult son is said to have encountered the SEALs on the staircase of the main house, and to have been shot and killed by the second team.[4][84][90][92][96] An unnamed U.S. senior defense official said only one of the five people killed, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, was armed.[97] The interior of the house was pitch dark, because CIA operatives had cut the power to the neighborhood.[59] The SEALs wore night vision goggles.

 

Killing of bin Laden

The SEALs encountered bin Laden on the third floor of the main building.[84][98] Bin Laden was unarmed, "wearing the local loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a kurta paijama", which were later found to have €500 and two phone numbers sewn into the fabric.[58][99][85][92]

Bin Laden peered through his bedroom door at the Americans advancing up the stairs, and the lead SEAL fired at him. Reports differ, though agree eventually he was hit by shots to the body and head. The initial shots either missed, hit him in the chest, the side, or in the head.[100][99] A number of Bin Laden's female relatives were near him.[99] According to journalist Nicholas Schmidle, one of bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, motioned as if she were about to charge; the lead SEAL shot her in the leg, then grabbed both women and shoved them aside.[55]

Robert J. O'Neill, who later publicly identified himself as one of the SEALs who shot bin Laden,[101][102] states that he pushed past the lead SEAL, entered through the door and confronted bin Laden inside the bedroom. O'Neill states that bin Laden was standing behind a woman with his hands on her shoulders, pushing her forward. O'Neill immediately shot bin Laden twice in the forehead, then once more as bin Laden crumpled to the floor.[103]

Matt Bissonnette gives a conflicting account of the situation, writing that Bin Laden had already been mortally wounded by the lead SEAL's shots from the staircase. The lead SEAL then pushed Bin Laden's wives aside, attempting to shield the SEALs behind him in the case that either woman had an explosive device. After Bin Laden staggered back or fell into the bedroom, Bissonnette and O'Neill entered the room, saw the wounded Bin Laden on the ground, fired multiple rounds, and killed him.[104] Journalist Peter Bergen investigated the conflicting claims and found that most of the SEALs present during the raid favored Bissonnette's account of the events. According to Bergen's sources, O'Neill did not mention firing the shots that killed Bin Laden in the after action report following the operations.[105]

The weapon used to kill bin Laden was an HK416 using 5.56mm NATO 77-grain OTM (open-tip match) rounds.[59][106] The SEAL team leader radioed, "For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo" and then, after being prompted by McRaven for confirmation, "Geronimo EKIA" (enemy killed in action). Watching the operation in the White House Situation Room, Obama simply said, "We got him."[4][55][59]

Various authors have written that there were two weapons in Bin Laden's room: an AKS-74U carbine and a Russian-made Makarov pistol.[107] According to his wife Amal, Bin Laden was shot before he could reach the AKS-74U.[107][108] According to the Associated Press, the guns were on a shelf next to the door and the SEALs did not see them until they were photographing the body.[74] According to journalist Matthew Cole, the guns were not loaded and only found later during a search of the third floor.[99]

As the SEALs encountered women and children during the raid, they restrained them with plastic handcuffs or zip ties.[84] After the raid was over, U.S. forces moved the surviving residents outside[50] "for Pakistani forces to discover".[84] The injured Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah continued to harangue the raiders in Arabic.[55] Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter Safia was allegedly struck in her foot or ankle by a piece of flying debris.[4][109][110]

While bin Laden's body was taken by U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left behind at the compound and later taken into Pakistani custody.[32][111]

 

 

Conclusion

USS Carl Vinson conducting flight operations in the Persian Gulf (April 4, 2011)

The raid was intended to take 40 minutes. The time between the team's entry in and exit from the compound was 38 minutes.[53] According to the Associated Press, the assault was completed in the first 15 minutes.[74]

Time in the compound was spent killing defenders,[87] "moving carefully through the compound, room to room, floor to floor" securing the women and children, clearing "weapons stashes and barricades"[84] including a false door,[112] and searching the compound for information.[28] U.S. personnel recovered three Kalashnikov rifles and two pistols, ten computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, almost a hundred thumb drives, a dozen cell phones, and "electronic equipment" for later analysis.[53][113][114][a] The SEALs also discovered a large amount of opium stored in the house.[116]

Since the helicopter that had made the emergency landing was damaged and unable to fly the team out, it was destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment, including an apparent stealth capability.[78] The pilot smashed "the instrument panel, the radio, and the other classified fixtures inside the cockpit", and the SEALs "[packed] the helicopter with explosives and [blew] it up". Since the SEAL team was reduced to one operational helicopter, one of the two Chinooks held in reserve was dispatched to carry part of the team and bin Laden's body out of Pakistan.[34][55][58][117]

While the official Department of Defense narrative did not mention the airbases used in the operation,[118] later accounts indicated that the helicopters returned to Bagram Airfield.[74] The body of Osama bin Laden was flown from Bagram to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft escorted by two U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter jets.[119][120]