Washington: World's most wanted terrorist was not killed in a cave but in a two-storey house just yards from Pakistan's Military Academy in Abbottabad, a town close to the capital Islamabad, with reports saying that he fired at the US commandos as they swooped down on his hideout.
Osama bin Laden's killing brought to an end the most intense manhunt in history and as the four helicopters swooped down on the isolated villa, bin Laden's Arab bodyguards opened fire from the roof of the house.
An intense round of heavy gunfire rocked Abbottabad as the fighting raged in the town, which is home to three Pakistani army regiment and is dotted with military buildings.
US officials, who did not want to be named, said the discovery that bin Laden was holed up in an army town in Pakistan raised pointed questions about how he managed to evade capture and whether Pakistan's military intelligence knew about his whereabouts and sheltered him.
Named after British general, Abbottabad not far from Islamabad
Most intelligence estimates figured that bin Laden was holed up in Pakistan's tribal areas, close to the Afghan border, possibly in a cave sheltered by loyal tribesmen.
US officials said it was not immediately known how long bin Laden had been in Abbottabad, which is just an-hour-and-half drive from Islamabad.
A Pakistani official claimed the helicopters took off from the Ghazi Air Base in northwest Pakistan where the US army was based to help out in the aftermath of the floods in 2010.
ABC quoted Pakistani officials as saying that a son of bin Laden and three others were killed in the raid. There was no US casualty.
The reports said that a number of heavily armed men, apparently bin Laden's bodyguards, were taken away from the scene by the US forces.
The house were Osama was holed is just 100 yards from the gate of the Kakul Military Academy, an army run institution where top officers train.
Giving a graphic account of the operation, ABC quoting officials said some 10 years after the abortive US bid to nab him in the caves of Tora Bora, a small group of American forces in helicopters took just 40 minutes to land in a well-guarded mansion in a secure neighbourhood.
Disgorging from choppers, the commandos shot Osama in his head after some fire exchange, officials said.
Bin Laden fired his weapon during fight: Reports
Noting that the operation itself was a culmination of years of careful and highly advanced intelligence work, a senior administration official said officers from the CIA, National Security Council and other intelligence wings of the government world very hard to get every possible information about the most wanted fugitive of the world.
some residential homes have been built nearby. The physical security measures of the compound are extraordinary. It has 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire. Internal wall sectioned off different portions of the compound to provide extra privacy.
Access to the compound is restricted by two security gates, and the residents of the compound burn their trash, unlike their neighbors, who put the trash out for collection.
The main structure, a three-story building, has few windows facing the outside of the compound. A terrace on the third floor has a seven-foot privacy wall.
It's also noteworthy that the property is valued at approximately USD 1 million but has no telephone or Internet service connected to it.
The brothers had no explainable source of wealth, officials said, adding that as a result, intelligence analysts concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance.
American intelligence soon learned that more people were living at the compound than the two brothers and their families.
A third family lived there -- one whose size and whose makeup matched the bin Laden family members that US intelligence believed most likely to be with Osama bin Laden.
"Our best assessment, based on a large body of reporting from multiple sources, was that bin Laden was living there with several family members, including his youngest wife," the official said.
"Everything we saw - the extremely elaborate operational security, the brothers' background and their behaviour, and the location and the design of the compound itself was perfectly consistent with what our experts expected bin Laden's hideout to look like. Keep in mind that two of bin Laden's gatekeepers, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libbi, were arrested in the settled areas of Pakistan," the official said.
American analysts looked at this from every angle, considering carefully who other than bin Laden could be at the compound.
Pak kept in dark till last minute on Osama operation
They conducted red team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check their work.
No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did, the official commented.
"So the final conclusion, from an intelligence standpoint, was twofold. We had high confidence that a high-value target was being harboured by the brothers on the compound, and we assessed that there was a strong probability that that person was Osama bin Laden," he said. PTI
Osama bin Laden's killing brought to an end the most intense manhunt in history and as the four helicopters swooped down on the isolated villa, bin Laden's Arab bodyguards opened fire from the roof of the house.
An intense round of heavy gunfire rocked Abbottabad as the fighting raged in the town, which is home to three Pakistani army regiment and is dotted with military buildings.
US officials, who did not want to be named, said the discovery that bin Laden was holed up in an army town in Pakistan raised pointed questions about how he managed to evade capture and whether Pakistan's military intelligence knew about his whereabouts and sheltered him.
Named after British general, Abbottabad not far from Islamabad
Most intelligence estimates figured that bin Laden was holed up in Pakistan's tribal areas, close to the Afghan border, possibly in a cave sheltered by loyal tribesmen.
US officials said it was not immediately known how long bin Laden had been in Abbottabad, which is just an-hour-and-half drive from Islamabad.
A Pakistani official claimed the helicopters took off from the Ghazi Air Base in northwest Pakistan where the US army was based to help out in the aftermath of the floods in 2010.
ABC quoted Pakistani officials as saying that a son of bin Laden and three others were killed in the raid. There was no US casualty.
The reports said that a number of heavily armed men, apparently bin Laden's bodyguards, were taken away from the scene by the US forces.
The house were Osama was holed is just 100 yards from the gate of the Kakul Military Academy, an army run institution where top officers train.
Giving a graphic account of the operation, ABC quoting officials said some 10 years after the abortive US bid to nab him in the caves of Tora Bora, a small group of American forces in helicopters took just 40 minutes to land in a well-guarded mansion in a secure neighbourhood.
Disgorging from choppers, the commandos shot Osama in his head after some fire exchange, officials said.
Bin Laden fired his weapon during fight: Reports
Noting that the operation itself was a culmination of years of careful and highly advanced intelligence work, a senior administration official said officers from the CIA, National Security Council and other intelligence wings of the government world very hard to get every possible information about the most wanted fugitive of the world.
some residential homes have been built nearby. The physical security measures of the compound are extraordinary. It has 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire. Internal wall sectioned off different portions of the compound to provide extra privacy.
Access to the compound is restricted by two security gates, and the residents of the compound burn their trash, unlike their neighbors, who put the trash out for collection.
The main structure, a three-story building, has few windows facing the outside of the compound. A terrace on the third floor has a seven-foot privacy wall.
It's also noteworthy that the property is valued at approximately USD 1 million but has no telephone or Internet service connected to it.
The brothers had no explainable source of wealth, officials said, adding that as a result, intelligence analysts concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance.
American intelligence soon learned that more people were living at the compound than the two brothers and their families.
A third family lived there -- one whose size and whose makeup matched the bin Laden family members that US intelligence believed most likely to be with Osama bin Laden.
"Our best assessment, based on a large body of reporting from multiple sources, was that bin Laden was living there with several family members, including his youngest wife," the official said.
"Everything we saw - the extremely elaborate operational security, the brothers' background and their behaviour, and the location and the design of the compound itself was perfectly consistent with what our experts expected bin Laden's hideout to look like. Keep in mind that two of bin Laden's gatekeepers, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libbi, were arrested in the settled areas of Pakistan," the official said.
American analysts looked at this from every angle, considering carefully who other than bin Laden could be at the compound.
Pak kept in dark till last minute on Osama operation
They conducted red team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check their work.
No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did, the official commented.
"So the final conclusion, from an intelligence standpoint, was twofold. We had high confidence that a high-value target was being harboured by the brothers on the compound, and we assessed that there was a strong probability that that person was Osama bin Laden," he said. PTI
