U.S. Forces unsure Bin Laden was there until face to face

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AP sources: US used "multiple methods" to ID body

By Gregory Viscusi and Anwar Shakir
May 2, 2011 10:20 AM CT
Bloomberg News

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The U.S. special operations forces who killed Osama bin Laden didn’t know for sure he was in a fortified villa near Islamabad until they swooped in and came face to face with the world’s most wanted terrorist.

While U.S. intelligence officers had concluded there was a “strong probability” bin Laden was living in the compound near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, all they could be positive about was that it was occupied by a high-value individual, unidentified officials said at a White House briefing.

The military’s target was a specially built property in the city full of retired military 35 miles northeast of Islamabad. The U.S. team was on site for less than 40 minutes, and bin Laden was killed resisting the assault, an official said.

Three other men, one of whom may have been one of bin Laden’s sons, were killed in the raid along with a woman used as a human shield. Two women were injured. No other civilians or U.S. personnel were injured, said the officials, who spoke on condition they wouldn’t be identified.

“We heard a loud explosion and then the sound of guns firing,” said Iqbal Alam Khan, 37, who works as a merchant in the town of Abbottabad where the assault took place. “It came from Bilal Town,” a property development of newly built villas and mansions about two miles from the center of Abbottabad, he said in a phone interview. “We didn’t know the cause of the fighting and we didn’t go outside to see because it was the middle of the night,” Khan said.

One helicopter was destroyed by U.S. forces after it was grounded by a mechanical failure. U.S. officials wouldn’t say how many men were involved in the operation, describing it as a surgical strike by a small team.

Bin Laden’s body was taken out of the country by the assault team and later buried at sea, another official said. DNA tests proved that the body was bin Laden’s, another administration official said. Obama was shown a photograph of bin Laden’s body, the official said.