'We were with Bin Laden during shootout'
Published: May 2, 2011 5:07 AM | Updated: May 3, 2011 5:36 AM
Pakistani Urdu TV channel Geo News quoted intelligence officials as saying that the world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden was killed in a search operation launched by the country's forces after a Pakistani army helicopter was shot down in the wee hours of Monday in Abbotabad, a mountainous town located some 60 kilometers north of Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad.
Pakistani Urdu TV channel Geo News quoted intelligence officials as saying that the world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden was killed in a search operation launched by the country's forces after a Pakistani army helicopter was shot down in the wee hours of Monday in Abbotabad, a mountainous town located some 60 kilometers north of Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad.
At about 1.20 am local time, a Pakistani helicopter was shot down by unknown people in the Sikandarabad area of Abbotabad, China's Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the Geo News.
The Pakistani forces launched a search operation in the nearby area and encountered with a group of unknown armed people. A fire exchange followed between the two sides.
When the fire exchange ended, the Pakistani forces arrested some Arab women and kids as well as some other armed people who later confessed to the Pakistani forces they were with Bin laden when the fire was exchanged and he was killed in the firing.
Local media reported that after the dead body of Bin Laden was recovered, two US helicopter flew to the site and carried away the dead body of Bin Laden.
Initial reports said that at least one was killed and two others were injured in the crash. At least two houses were engulfed by the huge fire caused by the crashed chopper.
Rescue team rushed to the site shortly after the crash was reported and the armed forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation there.
No media allowed inside
Sources of Xinhua said they tried to enter the area after the incident took place, but no media people were allowed inside.
"No one knows in that helicopter crash Bin Laden was killed," said the sources.
Meanwhile, Inter Press Service reports, in the middle of the night, in the affluent suburb a little over 50 kilometres north of Islamabad, Bin Laden was gunned down in a compound shielded by barbed wire-topped walls up to five-and-a-half metres high.
He resisted, United States officials say, fighting till the death as he had vowed he would.
The operation that killed Bin Laden – a helicopter assault carried out by a small team of US personnel – was years in the making; indeed, a decade.
Senior US administration officials said that Islamabad was kept in the dark about the pre-dawn raid that killed bin Laden in order to ensure the safety and success of the operation.
"We shared this with no other country, including Pakistan," a White House official told reporters after President Barack Obama's speech.
"We believed it was essential to the security of our personnel. Shortly after the raid, we contacted senior Pakistani leaders to brief them."
Obama green-lit the operation on Friday, Apr 29, eight months after US intelligence pinpointed the location of a courier known to be a protégé of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11
attacks, and considered to be among bin Laden's trusted few.
Compound worth one million dollars
The courier was tracked to an unusually well-protected compound in Abbotabad just 700 metres from the Pakistan military academy, the symbolic heart of the country's armed forces and its focal training
centre.
"We were shocked by what we saw," a senior administration official said, recalling the "extraordinarily unique compound" housed on a plot of land about eight times larger than those nearby, located at the end of a narrow, dirt road in a relatively secluded area.
Worth one million dollars, the compound was protected by a series of walls three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half metres tall, but had no Internet or telephone services, the official said.
"The final conclusion from an intelligence standpoint was two-fold," another official said. First, a "high-value asset" was housed within the compound; and second, "there was strong probability that that
person was Osama bin Laden."
"Our best assessment, based on a large body of reporting based on several sources, was that bin Laden was living there with several family members," the official added.
Islamabad was not given prior notice of the Abbotabad raid, which also resulted in the deaths of three other adult men and one woman and injuries to two women, according to senior White House officials.
- Agencies
Osama is dead; Obama declares justice is done
The soft-spoken millionaire 'mass murderer'
World leaders hail killing of Bin Laden
Osama death: Police to boost security
Americans erupt in joy at Bin Laden death
At about 1.20 am local time, a Pakistani helicopter was shot down by unknown people in the Sikandarabad area of Abbotabad, China's Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the Geo News.
The Pakistani forces launched a search operation in the nearby area and encountered with a group of unknown armed people. A fire exchange followed between the two sides.When the fire exchange ended, the Pakistani forces arrested some Arab women and kids as well as some other armed people who later confessed to the Pakistani forces they were with Bin laden when the fire was exchanged and he was killed in the firing.
Local media reported that after the dead body of Bin Laden was recovered, two US helicopter flew to the site and carried away the dead body of Bin Laden.
Initial reports said that at least one was killed and two others were injured in the crash. At least two houses were engulfed by the huge fire caused by the crashed chopper.
Rescue team rushed to the site shortly after the crash was reported and the armed forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation there.
No media allowed inside
Sources of Xinhua said they tried to enter the area after the incident took place, but no media people were allowed inside.
"No one knows in that helicopter crash Bin Laden was killed," said the sources.
Meanwhile, Inter Press Service reports, in the middle of the night, in the affluent suburb a little over 50 kilometres north of Islamabad, Bin Laden was gunned down in a compound shielded by barbed wire-topped walls up to five-and-a-half metres high.
He resisted, United States officials say, fighting till the death as he had vowed he would.
The operation that killed Bin Laden – a helicopter assault carried out by a small team of US personnel – was years in the making; indeed, a decade.
Senior US administration officials said that Islamabad was kept in the dark about the pre-dawn raid that killed bin Laden in order to ensure the safety and success of the operation.
"We shared this with no other country, including Pakistan," a White House official told reporters after President Barack Obama's speech. "We believed it was essential to the security of our personnel. Shortly after the raid, we contacted senior Pakistani leaders to brief them."
Obama green-lit the operation on Friday, Apr 29, eight months after US intelligence pinpointed the location of a courier known to be a protégé of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11
attacks, and considered to be among bin Laden's trusted few.
Compound worth one million dollars
The courier was tracked to an unusually well-protected compound in Abbotabad just 700 metres from the Pakistan military academy, the symbolic heart of the country's armed forces and its focal training
centre.
"We were shocked by what we saw," a senior administration official said, recalling the "extraordinarily unique compound" housed on a plot of land about eight times larger than those nearby, located at the end of a narrow, dirt road in a relatively secluded area.
Worth one million dollars, the compound was protected by a series of walls three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half metres tall, but had no Internet or telephone services, the official said.
"The final conclusion from an intelligence standpoint was two-fold," another official said. First, a "high-value asset" was housed within the compound; and second, "there was strong probability that that
person was Osama bin Laden."
"Our best assessment, based on a large body of reporting based on several sources, was that bin Laden was living there with several family members," the official added.
Islamabad was not given prior notice of the Abbotabad raid, which also resulted in the deaths of three other adult men and one woman and injuries to two women, according to senior White House officials.
- Agencies
Osama is dead; Obama declares justice is done
The soft-spoken millionaire 'mass murderer'
World leaders hail killing of Bin Laden
Osama death: Police to boost security
Americans erupt in joy at Bin Laden death
View Comments0