Skämt bin laden
On May 1, , American soldiers killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his compound near Islamabad, Pakistan. The Abbottabad Commission was charged with ascertaining the facts of what happened on the night of May 1, , when the United States unilaterally launched a raid to capture or kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in northern Pakistan. It is ten minutes past eleven in the evening. Amal Ahmad Abdul Fattah al-Sadah, a year-old Yemeni woman, sits with her three-year-old child, Hussain, in a second-floor bedroom.
Near to her is her husband, Osama bin Laden. About km away, at a US airbase in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, the rotor blades of two stealth Black Hawk helicopters begin to turn.
Osama bin Laden
The Black Hawks, coated with special radar-evading paint and panels, as well as noise suppression devices, fly low and fast, entering Pakistani airspace in the Khyber tribal area between pm and pm. They are closely followed by two other helicopters, mostly likely Chinooks. All four fly along the route of the River Kabul, above Chakdarra to Kala Dhaka, where one touches down, ready to provide refuelling and additional support to the Navy SEALs now en route to their target in Abbottabad.
Navy SEALs rappel down ropes to the street below. Some head towards the residential buildings, while others, including Urdu and Pashto speakers, form a cordon around the compound to keep locals away. Having unloaded its soldiers, one of the Black Hawks develops a fault, or encounters unexpected wind or temperature conditions. It is forty minutes past midnight. In their cramped rooms on the second floor, Bin Laden and Sadah hear what they initially think is the sound of a storm outside.
They go to the balcony to see what is happening, but the night of May 1 is a moonless one, and it is pitch dark. Sadah goes to see to her five children. When she returns upstairs moments later, Bin Laden has been joined by two of his daughters, Mariam, 21, and Sumayya, They are reciting the Kalma — the Muslim declaration of faith — and verses from the Holy Quran. Osama bin Laden tells his family that US helicopters have arrived and that they should all leave his room immediately.
In the annexe, meanwhile, Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti, a Pakistani bodyguard and courier for Bin Laden, is asleep with his wife, Maryam, and their children. They are awoken by a loud noise. As he attempts to calm his children, Kuwaiti receives a phone call. He asks if it is his brother, Abrar — also a guard and courier — who lives with his family in the main house. He gets no response. A bullet hits him through the window, and he falls to the floor.
As he falls, his feet hit the door, shutting it. Maryam is shot in the right shoulder, and falls to the floor. Her children rush to her, and she can hear soldiers outside, shouting at her to open the door. In Arabic, a soldier demands that she open the door. She complies, and is told to sit on the stairs outside the building with her children, where two soldiers keep guard over them. His daughter, Mariam, goes out on the balcony with her children to see what is happening outside.
The raid: How it happened
Bin Laden reaches for his weapon. They hear soldiers on the roof, and footsteps on the stairs. Sadah sees a US soldier, on the landing outside the bedroom, aiming his weapon at Bin Laden. A red laser dot appears on his body, and she throws herself at the soldier. As she lies injured on the bed, she recalls hearing the soldiers asking Sumayya and Mariam the name of the man they just killed. Sumayya says she grappled with a US soldier.
She did not see her father fall, but did see his body on the floor. That was when Sabar saw the body of her son, Khalid, lying in a pool of blood on the staircase. They also came across the bodies of Abrar al-Kuwaiti, the courier, and his Pakistani wife, Bushra. The operation lasted approximately 36 minutes. The first Chinook left Pakistani airspace at approximately am, with the support Chinook and remaining stealth Black Hawk following ten minutes later, at am.
US forces were in Pakistani airspace and territory for a little more than three hours. He saw flames and smoke billowing from the compound, and alerted the local police station. The police were relegated to forming a cordon around the scene, with the army and Inter-Services Intelligence ISI taking ownership of the site.