Bin Laden killed in Pakistan

Late Sunday night, President Barack Obama addressed the nation to confirm that Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda leader and the mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been killed during an American operation outside Islamabad, Pakistan.

“Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan,” he said. ” A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability.  No Americans were harmed.  They took care to avoid civilian casualties.  After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

He called the event “the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda” and praised the military and intelligence communities’ “tireless and heroic work” in tracking bin Laden over the past decade. He outlined the process that led to attack:

Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden.  It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground.  I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.  And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

During a press briefing after the address, a senior administration official gave more details, including dates of five National Security Council meetings chaired by the president to discuss the intelligence and plan the raid.

Bin Laden was killed in a “secure compound” in Abbottabad, “an affluent suburb of Islamabad,” an official noted during the press briefing. The compound was the main operational base of a bin Laden courier, who American intelligence had identified as a protege of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The compound, valued at $1 million but without TV or internet, was “custom built to hide someone of significance,” the official said. A small team conducted a surgical raid by helicopter which lasted around 40 minutes. Killed along with bin Laden were two couriers, one of Bin Laden’s sons and a woman who was “killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant.” Bin Laden did “resist the assault force” and was killed in a firefight.

U.S. forces have bin Laden’s body in custody and assure that it will be “handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition.” (According to an AP story this morning, Islamic law requires burial within 24 hours; since no country would likely agree to burial, an official says bin Laden was buried at sea.)

During his speech Sunday night, President Obama reiterated a point made by President George W. Bush after 9/11:

[W]e must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam.  I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam.  Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.  Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own.  So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.

Watch the president’s address: