Osama Bin Laden has been killed by the U.S. military after a decade-long hunt to avenge the 9/11 attacks. The leader of Al Qaeda was killed in a gun battle with some members of his family in an attack on a mansion outside Islamabad in Pakistan.
The U.S. military has recovered the body and intelligence sources have confirmed his identity. Within minutes of the news breaking Americans began gathering outside the White House to wave American flags, sing the national anthem and chant: ‘USA! USA!’
Announcement: Barack Obama announces the death of Bin Laden during a special address to the nation from the White House, ending an almost ten-year hunt
Sources said that Bin Laden was not killed by a drone but by ground forces attacking a home in Islamabad. President Obama said that the attack had been in the planning for months but that he gave the authorisation for the action today.Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed the killing and said it was the result of a ‘highly sensitive intelligence operation’ involving themselves and the U.S.Bin Laden has been sought by America since 2001, when he masterminded the September 11 attacks that left 2,700 dead and led to the invasion of Afghanistan as America sought to track him down.The dramatic development will be a major victory for Barack Obama who made a statement to the nation to outline more details. Relatives of those who died on 9/11 immediately welcomed the killing.Carie Lamack, who lost her mother Judy on American Airlines flights 11 on 9/11, said: ‘I cannot express how this feels to my family. Relief is one word.’U.S. military posts around the world had been put on alert in case of retaliation attacks by Islamic radicals. Mr Obama said a small team of Americans carried out the attack and took custody of bin Laden's remains.Pakistani forces said in August last year that they thought they knew where Bin Laden was hiding. Mr Obama said that American intelligence sources said it was a strong enough lead to methodically organise the terrorist's capture of killing.The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York and Pentagon in Washington. The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.source
