Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, is dead -- almost 10 years after the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
The founder and leader of al Qaeda 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 were also 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.
The official did not release additional details about the burial, but said it was handled in keeping with Muslim customs.
Spontaneous celebrations outside the White House and in Times Square in New York erupted late last night. The President's speech last night was somber but forceful.
Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we've made great strides in that effort. We've disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support. And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al Qaeda terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot.
Yet Osama bin Laden avoided capture and escaped across the Afghan border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, al Qaeda continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world.
And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.
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.
Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 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.
This is something I honestly thought would never happen. After years of him taunting us, our guys finally found him and said hello. In the short term this doesn't change much at all. We still have troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we're still neck deep in Libya. Where this will go and what this will mean, I can't tell you. I'm hoping it means we can get extremely serious about bringing home our troops in Afghanistan later this year.
They have earned their rest. We'll see, but from here out things are going to be a bit different.
New tag: Osama Been Gotten. It's going to generate a lot of news, I predict.
[UPDATE] Taegan Goddard has the transcript of the White House conference call with reporters after the President's speech. It's...very surreal. Nothing but a spokesman and several "Senior Administration Officials" giving frank details of the operation. Worth a definite read.
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