The location of Osama bin Laden safehouse in Abbottabad, Pakistan, near a military academy. The Pakistani spy agency failed in gathering intelligence datas on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the world's most dangerous and most wanted terrorist!!
Jubilant Americans gathered in various parts of USA to celebrate the death of the world most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.
Do not underestimate the super powers of the world's greatest military, the armed forces of United States of America, the world's greatest nation!!
Osama bin Laden, the elusive mastermind behind the devastating Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that led the United States into war in Afghanistan and later Iraq, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan in a firefight with US forces, around midnight on 2nd May 2011, US President Barack Obama said.
Bin Laden's death at a compound in Pakistan ended the world's most widely-watched manhunt, and jubilant crowds gathered outside the White House and at ground zero in New York, where the twin towers were brought down by bin Laden's hijackers 10 years ago.
"Justice has been done," the president said.
The United States is conducting DNA testing on slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and used facial recognition techniques to help identify him, a US official said on Monday, 2nd May 2011.
Bin Laden was identified by the assault force that killed him in a firefight in Pakistan in which he resisted and was shot in the head, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Results of the DNA tests should be available in the next few days, the official said.
The strike force was on the ground for less than 40 minutes and the operation was watched real-time by CIA Director Leon Panetta and other intelligence officials in a conference room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the official said.
"When word came in that the operation was a success, CIA officials in the conference room had a rather large applause," the official said. (Reuters)
In LONDON, British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed news of Osama bin Laden's death, saying it would "bring great relief to people across the world".
In WASHINGTON, Joyous crowds descended on the White House and spontaneously erupted with chants of "USA, USA," as news of Osama bin Laden's death was welcomed by ordinary Americans.
Some brandishing US national flag, they punched the air and sang The Star Spangled Banner, even before the announcement of his death by President Barack Obama in a hurriedly-organized address to the nation.
The Internet, including the Twitter and Facebook social networking websites, were also deluged with reaction to the Al Qaeda leaders death, killed by US forces in Pakistan.
"Finally! I can now sleep tonight knowing this. He was hiding for years and was finally caught and killed. I am so happy right now," said Stewie, on one Yahoo message board. (AFP)
In Islamabad, the Pakistan government said that the killing of Osama bin Laden was a "major setback" to terrorist organisations around the world.
"Osama bin Laden's death illustrates the resolve of the international community, including Pakistan, to fight and eliminate terrorism," the foreign ministry said on Monday 2nd May 2011.
(March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011)The world's most wanted terrorist - Osama bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaeda has been killed by elite US Navy Seal forces.
US forces finally found al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden not in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan's border, but in a million-dollar compound, with his youngest wife.
They were led to the fortress-like three-story building after more than four years tracking one of bin Laden's most trusted couriers, whom U.S. officials said was identified by men captured after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Bin Laden was finally found -- more than 9-1/2 years after the 2001 attacks on the United States -- after authorities discovered in August 2010 that the courier lived with his brother and their families in an unusual and extremely high-security building, officials said.
The building, about eight times the size of other nearby houses, sat on a large plot of land that was relatively secluded when it was built in 2005. When it was constructed, it was on the outskirts of Abbotabad's center, at the end of a dirt road, but some other homes have been built nearby in the six years since it went up, officials said.
WALLS TOPPED WITH BARBED WIRE
Intense security measures included 12- to 18-foot (3.6 meters to 5.5 meters) outer walls topped with barbed wire and internal walls that sectioned off different parts of the compound, officials said. Two security gates restricted access, and residents burned their trash, rather than leaving it for collection as did their neighbors, officials said.
Few windows of the three-story home faced the outside of the compound, and a terrace had a seven-foot (2.1 meter) privacy wall, officials said.
A small team of Americans killed bin Laden early Monday, 2nd May 2011 in the town of Abbottabad, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the capital Islamabad, US and Pakistani officials said.
The team took custody of his remains and American officials said they were being handled in accordance with Islamic tradition.
Three adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons, whom officials did not name. One of bin Laden's sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al-Qaida.
US officials also said one woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, and two other women were injured.
US officials said the CIA tracked bin Laden to his location, then elite troops from Navy SEAL Team Six, a top military counterterrorism unit, flew to the hideout in four helicopters.
Bin Laden was shot in the head in an ensuing firefight, these officials said, adding that he and his guards had resisted his attackers.
US personnel identified him by facial recognition, the official said, declining to say whether DNA analysis had also been used.
President Obama said neither Americans nor civilians were harmed in the operation.
The death of the world's most-wanted man came just months before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.
The United States attacked Afghanistan within months, pursuing al-Qaida, and an invasion of Iraq followed.
The success of the raid marks a psychological triumph in a long struggle that began with the 2001 attacks, and seems certain to give Obama a political lift. But its ultimate impact on al-Qaida is less clear.
The greatest terrorist threat to the West is now considered to be the al-Qaida franchise in Yemen, far from al-Qaida's core in Pakistan.
The Yemen branch almost took down a US-bound airliner on Christmas 2009 and nearly detonated explosives aboard two US cargo planes last fall.
Those operations were carried out without any direct involvement from bin Laden.
Obama provided few details of the operation beyond to say that he had personally ordered it be carried out.
Other officials said it was so secretive that no foreign officials were informed in advance, and only a small circle inside the administration was aware of what was unfolding half a world away.
But within hours of the announcement, Pakistani officials and a witness said bin Laden's guards had opened fire from the roof of the building, and one of the choppers crashed.
The sound of at least two explosions rocked the small northwestern town of Abbottabad, where the al-Qaida chief made his last stand.
Flames were visible after the attack on the building, about 100 yards (meters) from the gates of a Pakistani military academy - certain to raise questions about al-Qaida's ability to build a custom-made hideout in such close proximity.
Abbottabad, surrounded by hills and with mountains in the distance, is less than half a day's drive from the border region with Afghanistan, where most intelligence assessments believed bin Laden was holed up.
The White House said Obama convened at least nine meetings with top national security officials in the lead-up to the raid.
The president spent part of the day on the golf course, but cut his round short to return to the White House for a meeting where he and top national security aides reviewed final preparations for the raid.
Two hours later, Obama was told that bin Laden had been tentatively identified.
CIA director Leon Panetta was directly in charge of the military team during the operation, according to one official, and when he and his aides received word at agency headquarters that bin Laden had been killed, cheers broke out around the conference room table.
Halfway around the world, in Abbotabad, one witness described a military raid carried out under darkness.
"I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped. Then more thundering, then a big blast," said Mohammad Haroon Rasheed. "In the morning when we went out to see what happened, some helicopter wreckage was lying in an open field."
A Pakistani official in the town said fighters on the roof opened fire on the choppers with rocket-propelled grenades.
Another official said the four helicopters took off from the Ghazi air base in northwest Pakistan.
The US and Pakistani officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on the day of the attacks, issued a written statement hailing bin Laden's death as a momentous achievement. "The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done," Bush said.
Obama said he ordered the operation after receiving undisclosed intelligence information. Senior administration officials said the terrorist mastermind was found inside a custom-built compound with two security gates.
They said it appeared to have been constructed to harbor one high-value target and that for undisclosed reasons, officials became clear the hideout was bin Laden's.
Based on statements given by US detainees, intelligence officials have known for years that bin Laden trusted one al-Qaida courier in particular and they believed he might be living with him in hiding.
In November 2010, intelligence officials found out he was living in the huge fortified compound. It was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet (5.5 meters), topped with barbed wire.
There were two security gates and no phone or Internet running into the house.
Intelligence officials believed the USD$1 million home was custom-built to harbor a major terrorist.
CIA experts analyzed whether it could be anyone else, but time and again, they decided it was almost certainly bin Laden.
Officials also said they believe the death puts al-Qaida on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse, but there was no word on the whereabouts of bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The attacks in the US a decade ago seemed to come out of nowhere, even though al-Qaida had previously damaged American targets overseas.
The terrorists hijacked planes, flew one of them into one of Manhattan's Twin Towers - and, moments later, into the other one.
Both buildings collapsed, trapping thousands inside and claiming the lives of firefighters and others who had rushed to help them.
A third plane slammed into the Pentagon, defacing the symbol of America's military might. A fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers overpowered the hijackers and forced the craft from the air - before it could hit its intended target in Washington.
Obama spoke with Bush and former President Bill Clinton on Sunday night to inform them of the developments.
Obama struck a less than boastful tone in his brief announcement, although he said the death of bin Laden was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaida.
"His death does not mark the end of our effort. There's no doubt that al-Qaida will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must and we will remain vigilant," he added.
Moments after Obama spoke, the State Department put US embassies on alert and warned of the heightened possibility for anti-American violence. In a worldwide travel alert, the department said there was an "enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counterterrorism activity in Pakistan."
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