US President Barack Obama had ordered the raid by a small team of US Special Forces, which found Laden, who had evaded capture for a decade, in a home on a fortified compound in Abbottabad city, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar, Pakistan.
"This operation was conducted by the US forces in accordance with declared US policy that Osama bin Laden will be eliminated in a direct action by the US forces, wherever found in the world," The Dawn quoted a Foreign Ministry statement, as saying.
US officials have said that the team went on board two Black Hawk helicopters.
"It was a military team of about two dozen, but they were operating under the authority of Leon Panetta, the CIA Director, since the US military does not have authority to operate in Pakistan. A second team of about two dozen orbited out of sight in case they were needed," CBS News quoted the officials, as saying.
They also said that US troops were at the compound for less than 40 minutes.
"Laden did not go peacefully. He resisted arrest and was killed in a firefight as US troops entered the compound," the officials said.
The officials also revealed that none of the specific intelligence resulting in the raid was shared with any other country, and only a "very small group of people" inside the Obama administration knew it was to happen.
The Pakistan government was notified after the operation was over, officials say. (ANI)
