U.S. forces kill elusive terror figure Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 2, 2011 -- Updated 1154 GMT (1954 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* NEW: DNA matching is under way, a U.S. official says
* Intelligence work on a bin Laden courier led to a key break
* Former Homeland Security adviser to Bush: The war on terrorism is not over
* Hundreds celebrate in front of the White House and in New York
(CNN) -- DNA matching is under way on samples from the body of slain terrorist
leader Osama Bin Laden, a U.S. government official told CNN on Monday.
There are photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head
that shows an individual who is not unrecognizable as bin Laden, the official
said.
No decision has yet been made on whether to release the photographs and if so,
when and how.
The mastermind of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil was killed by
U.S. forces Monday in a mansion in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles)
north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, U.S. officials said.
Four others in the compound also were killed. One of them was bin Laden's adult
son, and another was a woman being used as a shield by a male combatant, the
officials said.
Bin Laden's body was later buried at sea, an official said. Many Muslims adhere
to the belief that bodies should be buried within one day.
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The official did not release additional details about the burial, but said it
was handled in keeping with Muslim customs.
The death of the founder and leader of al Qaeda comes almost 10 years after the
September 11, 2001, attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
In an address to the nation Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama called
bin Laden's death "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's
effort to defeat al Qaeda." Washington is nine hours behind Pakistan.
"Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation
against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan," Obama 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."
A congressional source familiar with the operation said bin Laden was shot in
the head.
The killing of bin Laden was the culmination of years of intelligence work and
months of following a specific lead, senior U.S. administration officials said.
The key break involved one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden, according
to the officials. About two years ago, intelligence work identified where the
courier and his brother lived and operated in Pakistan, and it took until
August to find the compound in Abbottabad that was raided, they said.
According to the senior administration officials, intelligence work determined
at the beginning of 2011 that bin Laden might be located at the compound.
Obama chaired five National Security Council meetings from mid-March until late
April, with the last two on April 19 and April 28 -- last Thursday.
On Friday morning -- even as he visited Alabama's tornado-ravaged areas --
Obama gave the order for the mission, the officials said.
Senior Obama administration officials believe the compound was built five years
ago for the specific purpose of hiding bin Laden. U.S. forces carried out
several so-called "practice runs" in order to minimize casualties.
Footage that aired Monday on CNN affiliate GEO TV showed fire and smoke spewing
from the compound where bin Laden was killed.
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RELATED TOPICS
* Osama bin Laden
* Terrorism
* Al Qaeda
* September 11 Attacks
One resident in the city of Lahore said Monday she was stunned to hear bin
Laden was in the country.
"But was it really him?" the woman said.
A senior national security official told CNN that officials had multiple
confirmations that the body was bin Laden's, saying they had the "ability to
run images of the body and the face."
A resident in Abbottabad, who did not want to be fully identified, said he was
wary of making any personal statements or giving his reaction to the news. But
he said the house where bin Laden allegedly was killed has been occupied by
many people for the past five years.
Half a world away, the scene outside the White House was one of pure jubilation.
Hundreds reveled through the night, chanting "USA! USA!" Others chanted "Hey,
hey, hey, goodbye!" in reference to the demise of bin Laden. Many also
spontaneously sang the national anthem.
In New York, a cheering crowd gathered at ground zero -- the site where the
twin towers of the World Trade Center stood before bin Laden's terrorist group
flew two planes into the buildings on September 11, 2001. Strains of "God Bless
America" could be heard intermittently trickling through the crowd.
One former New York firefighter -- forced to retire due to lung ailments
suffered as a result of the dust from ground zero -- said he was there to let
the 343 firefighters who died in the attacks know "they didn't die in vain."
"It's a war that I feel we just won," he said. "I'm down here to let them know
that justice has been served."
Bob Gibson, a retired New York police officer, said the news of bin Laden's
death gave him a sense of "closure."
"I never thought this night would come, that we would capture or kill bin
Laden," he said. "And thank the Lord he has been eliminated."
The news also brought some relief to family members of those killed on 9/11.
"This is important news for us, and for the world," said Gordon Felt, president
of Families of Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania, on 9/11. "It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones.
It does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September 11th
tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil."
Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training
camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles
destroyed it.
He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had
grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s. They included a deadly
firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two
U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on
the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.
In his speech, Obama reiterated that the United States is not fighting 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," Obama said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and
advocacy organization, welcomed the death of bin Laden.
"As we have stated repeatedly since the 9/11 terror attacks, bin Laden never
represented Muslims or Islam. In fact, in addition to the killing of thousands
of Americans, he and al Qaeda caused the deaths of countless Muslims
worldwide," the statement said.
While the death of bin Laden "is a significant victory," the war on terrorism
is not over, said Frances Fragos Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to
President George W. Bush.
"We've been fighting these fractured cells. We've seen the U.S. government,
military and intelligence officials deployed around the world," Townsend said.
"By no means are these other cells nearly as dangerous as he is, but we will
continue to have to fight in chaotic places."
U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world were placed on high alert following
the announcement of bin Laden's death, a senior U.S. official said, and the
U.S. State Department issued a "worldwide caution" for Americans.
The travel alert warned of the "enhanced potential for anti-American violence
given recent counter-terrorism activity in Pakistan." Some fear al Qaeda
supporters may try to retaliate against U.S. citizens or U.S. institutions.
But for now, many Americans were soaking up the historic moment.
"It's what the world needed," said Dustin Swensson, a military veteran Iraq and
joined the revelers outside the White House. "(I'll) always remember where I
was when the towers went down, and I'm always going to remember where I am now."
CNN's Ed Henry, Elise Labott, Jeanne Meserve, Holly Yan, Aliza Kassim and David
Ariosto contributed to this report
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