But after days of confusing and sometimes contradictory reports by U.S. officials and others, some clarity is finally emerging from what even the White House has dubbed “the fog of war” surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden.
We now know, for instance, that what was first described as a 40-minute firefight inside bin Laden’s Pakistan compound was no such thing. Only one of the five people killed by U.S. Navy SEALs was armed and fired a shot. And no, it probably wasn’t the terrorist leader himself, wielding an AK-47 from a third-floor window, as initially reported.
It’s also now generally agreed that the hitherto secret stealth helicopter used by the Americans — the one that crashed into the wall surrounding bin Laden’s compound — was a souped-up version of an MH-60 Black Hawk.
And Al Qaeda confirmed Friday that its former leader is, in fact, dead, which should put a stop to all the conspiracy theorists who claimed the U.S. had faked the whole operation or killed someone other than bin Laden.
Some questions, however, remain unanswered. Which commando shot an unarmed bin Laden, and what prompted him to do so? Was it a so-called kill mission from outset? And why were none of the survivors taken away?
There are also conflicting reports from U.S. and Pakistani sources on whether Pakistan’s military knew about the raid in advance, and what role it may or may not have played in the attack.
Here’s what we do know, with at least some apparent certainty:
The string of intelligence that eventually led to the compound in Abbottabad began at Guantanamo Bay, with information supplied by an Al Qaeda prisoner referencing bin Laden’s designated courier, Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan, who was living on the first floor of the main house in bin Laden’s compound. (The courier’s name had even come up recently in cables released by Wikileaks, although that seems to have escaped Al Qaeda’s notice.)
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency rented a house nearby, and had been watching the compound for months — a hugely expensive, high-tech operation that forced the CIA to seek Congress’s approval to reallocate parts of its overall budget last December.
Despite that intense surveillance, there still seems to have been some faulty communication about the true nature of bin Laden’s accommodation.
In the raid’s aftermath, he was initially described as living in an opulent mansion in a wealthy neighbourhood. Subsequent reports instead confirmed that it was a fairly bare-bones house without air conditioning, albeit on about a half hectare of land, in a part of Abbottabad best described as middle class.
It remains uncertain how long bin Laden had been living there, whether for only a few months or as long as five years, as one his wives has reportedly told Pakistani interrogators.
While the U.S. considered simply bombing the entire site, that idea was discarded, apparently over concerns about the potential number of civilian casualties or worse, since the Pakistan military academy is only 1,000 metres away.
Instead, President Barack Obama gave the green light to Monday’s early-morning daring raid, telling CIA Director Leon Panetta go ahead under so-called Title 50, meaning it would be a covert operation.
The SEALs had been training extensively in Afghanistan for just such an assault, sometimes going through the exercise three times a night using a mocked-up version of bin Laden’s compound.
But they still couldn’t be completely certain that bin Laden would even be there. Hence the succinct advice that Panetta reportedly gave Adm. William McRaven, the man charged with operational control of the mission: “Go in and get bin Laden. And if he’s not there, get the hell out.”
The mission itself proceeded in what amounted to two waves. The first featured two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, specially modified to give them the latest stealth technology, presumably in the hope that they would elude detection by Pakistani radar. They were backed up by two special operations Chinook helicopters.
A total of 79 soldiers were involved, plus a four-legged warrior whose name and breed are still unknown, earning him or her the sobriquet: “International Dog of Mystery.”
The SEALs would almost certainly have trained with various contingencies in mind, should things not go as smoothly as hoped. In the event, that’s precisely what happened.
The two Black Hawks left Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, stopping at Jalalabad, before crossing into Pakistan’s airspace and heading to bin Laden’s compound. The initial plan involved one helicopter landing in the compound’s courtyard, while other commandos descended on ropes from the second helicopter hovering over the three-storey house.
That plan soon had to be abandoned when one of the Black Hawks hit the high wall surrounding the compound. The 12 SEALs on board were able to continue with the operation after what’s been described as a hard but controlled landing, one that left the helicopter’s severed tail section draped over the exterior of the wall.
Precipitating that mishap was an air vortex, caused by the unexpectedly warm temperatures combined with the height of the wall itself, rather than a mechanical failure or gunfire, as initially suspected.
There were now 25 commandos inside the compound, at approximately 1 a.m. local time, and they soon encountered gunfire from bin Laden’s courier, who was almost instantly killed in return fire. An unidentified woman was also killed in the crossfire.
Many of the SEALs, but presumably not all, then made their way over a second wall encircling the house, or blasted their way through.
More than two dozen people may have been living in the compound, and the commandos feared some of them would be wearing explosive suicide vests, hence the need to make split-second decisions on how lethal any encounter could become.
After shooting their way through some doors in the house, the SEALs killed the courier’s brother and then, on a staircase, bin Laden’s son, before making their way up to the Al Qaeda leader’s third-floor lair.
U.S. officials said Friday that bin Laden was first seen standing in the doorway of his room. He then turned and retreated into the room.
Bin Laden had three wives living with him, and one of them charged the commandos, crying out his name. She was shot in the calf. At some point, a SEAL grabbed a woman and pulled her away from the invading party, fearing she might be wearing explosives. It remains unclear whether this was also the same wife, or another woman, and whether this happened before or after bin Laden was killed.
A report Friday, citing Pakistani intelligence officers, said bin Laden’s young, Yemeni-born wife, Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, was shot in the leg during the raid. But one official pointedly said she did not witness the bin Laden’s death.
According to U.S. reports, the first bullet hit bin Laden in the chest, while a second struck just above his left eye, shattering part of his skull. Yet it’s still unknown, at least publicly, whether one or more commandos did the shooting, or whether there was a spray of gunfire.
The Americans then swept the entire compound, binding the hands of non-combatants with plastic ties and leaving them for Pakistan’s authorities to deal with. The three wives and eight or nine children are now in Pakistani custody.
As they spread out, the SEALs also gathered up whatever records, computers and electronic devices they could find. These have since revealed that, as of February, 2010, Al Qaeda was planning an attack on the U.S. rail system to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Before leaving, the commandos also blew up the damaged helicopter, in a bid to keep its stealth technology secret.
The SEALs then boarded the remaining Black Hawk and one of the back-up Chinooks, and flew off to the U.S.S. Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea. The entire ground operation had taken only 40 minutes.
The U.S. has said that full Islamic funeral rites were followed before bin Laden’s body was dumped into the sea, roughly 12 hours after the attack. But not before photographs were taken, as well as DNA samples, which were then compared with DNA from one of bin Laden’s sisters, who had been treated in a Boston hospital for brain cancer.
The White House, however, has decided not to release the photos, on the grounds that doing so would amount to “spiking the ball.”
Yet, some crucial questions remain.
Did the Pakistani military know about the raid in advance? The U.S. has steadfastly said no, which meshes with a common suspicion in Washington that at least some part of Pakistan’s military knew about bin Laden’s whereabouts and may have been protecting him.
The Abbottabad compound, after all, is just two hours away from capital, Islamabad, and home to a military academy and two regiments of what is the world’s fifth-largest army. Was bin Laden simply hiding in plain sight, in a garrison town — one founded in 1853 by a British major, James Abbott?
Pakistan’s official version of events is that it had no knowledge of a raid until the Black Hawk helicopter had crashed and, within 10 minutes, been identified as foreign. But it’s also possible that what alerted neighbours was not the initial crash, but the sound of the helicopter being blown up by the SEALs, presumably as close to the time of their departure as possible.
Whatever the cue, the Pakistan air force then scrambled two aircraft, but it took them 15 minutes to reach the site, by which point the Americans had left.
Both U.S. and Pakistani officials have said formal confirmation of the raid didn’t come until 3 a.m. local time, when the chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, telephoned the Pakistan army’s chief of staff, Ashfaq Kayani.
But contrary versions started to emanate Friday from Pakistan, suggesting the local military played a larger and different role. Several area residents told news agencies that the Pakistan army had cordoned off the area and told them to stay inside and turn off all lights two hours before the raid.
Such reports will only fuel speculation that, for reasons of geo-political convenience, both the United States and Pakistan are trying to portray the latter as an entirely unknowing bystander.
Another question: Why was bin Laden killed rather than captured, and did he make any effort to surrender?
Pakistan intelligence officers, after interviewing bin Laden’s wives and children, said neither he nor any of his associates put up “significant resistance” when the SEALs entered the compound.
An AK-47 and pistol were subsequently found in the house, but only one bullet had been fired from the rifle. One of bin Laden’s wives has also reportedly said that the American intruders used “stun bombs” to disorient the occupants.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that bin Laden was unarmed. But they say he was moving toward a small cache of weapons in the room when he was shot. The commandos also took bin Laden’s retreat into his room as a sign of resistance.
Still, in some intelligence circles, the whole operation bears the hallmark of a pure kill operation.
That wouldn’t be at odds with how the hunt for bin Laden has been described in Washington ever since 9/11.
In the days after the collapse of the twin towers, then-president George W. Bush openly talked about bin Laden in terms of posters from the old West, the ones that used to read: “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”
And within the CIA, bin Laden was known not as “Geronimo” — his code name in the assault — but as “HVT-1,” short for high-value target number one.
In the wee hours, that target was finally hit.
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