After World’s Biggest Manhunt, Navy Seals Get Qaida Boss & Eldest Son At Night, Bury Him At Sea
Was In Military Town 60km From Islamabad & 100km From India
Was In Military Town 60km From Islamabad & 100km From India
Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN
Washington: The United States hunted down and killed the world’s most wanted terrorist and 9/11 perpetrator Osama bin Laden in the early hours of Monday. American Navy Seals stormed a compound in suburban Abbottabad in Pakistan, about 60km
north of capital Islamabad, and gunned down bin Laden after a firefight in an operation that took 40 minutes to execute but four years to fructify.
After identifying bin Laden through photos and videos, and collecting DNA and other evidence, they spirited the body of the al-Qaida leader out of Pakistan, and later dumped him in the sea in a perplexing move. US officials later said they were conforming to Islamic tenets to bury the dead within 24 hours, but the real purpose was evidently to deny any possible shrine being established for the al-Qaida leader. Bin Laden was a Saudi national, but the Saudi monarchy reportedly refused to accept his body. The location of the dumping was not identified.
The Obama administration kept Pakistan out of the loop,
informing the government in Islamabad only after the operation was over. President Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton acknowledged broad intelligence cooperation from Pakistan but did not attribute any operational help from their so-called ally and did not even thank Pakistan.
Suspicion is deep in Washington that Pakistan’s military intelligence establishment was sheltering bin Laden, because of his location in a massive compound in a cantonment close to the prominent Kakul Military Academy. Questions are being asked whether the compound was an ISI safe house.
President Obama and US officials described a small all-American team, involving Navy Seals in two helicopters, taking part in the swift operation in the dead of the night. Remarkably, there were no American casualties.
Bin Laden reportedly put up a fight, but he was shot in the head. Two couriers, through whom he was traced, his eldest son, and an unidentified woman, were killed too. A US helicopter was forced to land. But the American team regrouped and fled without any casualties.
UNDER THEIR NOSE
Abbottabad is 60km northeast of Islamabad. HQ of a Northern Army Corps brigade located there. Osama’s hideout just 800m down the road from main military academy, where Pak army chief Kayani spoke 10 days ago
Abbottabad is a lovely
spot — good summer climate, beautiful hills, nice inscription by Ashoka on a rock nearby. My great uncle used to run the military academy in the 1930s and my great aunt’s watercolours still adorn the walls... wonder if OBL liked them on his visits to see the generals?
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