On May 2, 2011,
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, is killed by U.S. forces during a raid on his compound hideout in Pakistan. The notorious, 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist network of Islamic extremists, had been the target of a nearly decade-long international manhunt.
Revealed: The Hunt for Bin Laden premieres Sunday, May 2 at 8/7c on The HISTORY® Channel.
The raid began around 1 a.m. local time (4 p.m. EST on May 1, 2011 in the United States), when 23 U.S. Navy SEALs in two Black Hawk helicopters descended on the compound in Abbottabad, a tourist and military center north of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. One of the helicopters crash-landed into the compound but no one aboard was hurt.
During the raid, which lasted approximately 40 minutes, five people, including bin Laden and one of his adult sons, were killed by U.S. gunfire. No Americans were injured in the assault. Afterward, bin Laden’s body was flown by helicopter to Afghanistan for official identification, then
buried at an undisclosed location in the Arabian Sea less than 24 hours after his death, in accordance with Islamic practice.
Just after 11:30 p.m. EST on May 1 (Pakistan’s time zone is 9 hours ahead of
Washington, D.C.), President
Barack Obama, who monitored the raid in real time via footage shot by a drone flying high above Abbottabad, made a televised address from the
White House, announcing bin Laden’s death. “Justice has been done,” the president said. After hearing the news, cheering crowds gathered outside the White House and in
New York City’s Times Square and the
Ground Zero site.