Washington: Osama bin Laden’s killing in a covert US operation in Pakistan on May 2 was the culmination of months of meticulous planning during which the US explored options like tunnelling in and an attack by B-2 Spirit bombers.
Tunnelling would have avoided ground troops sneaking through the town of Abbottabad as they penetrated the walled compound, The New Yorker magazine reported. But they determined from satellite photos that a water table was probably just below the surface of the building land and that tunnelling was highly unlikely to be successful.
A less exotic option for striking bin Laden was to bomb from the sky. The article detailed how then secretary of defense Robert Gates preferred a strike by B-2 Spirit bombers. But President Barack Obama disliked that idea and said the helicopter raid should go ahead.
In the end, bin Laden was shot by a SEAL, who gave his account of the assault in an interview with The New Yorker magazine.
When he pulled the trigger on his silenced rifle in a darkened bedroom and shot a tall, unarmed man with a straggly beard, he ended a nine-year manhunt for bin Laden, the man who claimed 2,973 lives on September 11, 2001.
But no one — not even President Barack Obama — will ever know the name of that SEAL, nor of the comrade who wrapped bin Laden’s wives in a huge bear hug and dragged them aside in case they were wearing suicide bomb vests, knowing he would absorb most of the blast and save the men behind him.
In the interview, for the first time, the fascinating details of that raid have been revealed, including the SEAL’s first words after he killed the world’s most-wanted man: “For God and country — Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo”.
The SEAL told The New Yorker, “There was never any question of detaining or capturing him — it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees.”
He told the magazine how he stepped into the terror leader's bedroom and “trained the infrared laser of his M4 [rifle] on bin Laden’s chest. “The al Qaeda chief, who was wearing a tan shalwar kameez and a prayer cap, froze; he was unarmed.” The SEAL fired, hitting bin Laden once in the chest and above the left eye.
Moments earlier, the SEAL told The New Yorker, another SEAL had entered the room and was confronted by two of bin Laden’s wives. One screamed and appeared to charge at him. The SEAL shot her in the calf and then, “fearing that one or both of women were wearing suicide jackets, he stepped forward, wrapped them in a bear hug and drove them aside.
The report also revealed that the SEALs were not wearing cameras on their helmets, and Obama and his colleagues spent 25 minutes waiting to hear the news.
After the first dramatic words from Abbottabad, the SEAL added: “Geronimo E.K.I.A — enemy killed in action”. Geronimo was the codename for a hit on bin Laden. The president pursed his lips, and speaking to no one in particular said: “We got him”.
The SEALs then put bin Laden in a body bag and carried him out of the house, where a medic took two bone marrow samples and DNA swabs.
Five days after the May 2 operation, Obama went to Kentucky where he met the assault team and spoke to each one in turn, but he never asked one crucial question — who pulled the trigger.
The men didn’t volunteer the information either. Known as ‘the best of the best’, whoever shot bin Laden is likely to have received acclaim within the unit, but will never be revealed outside it.
Instead, The Daily Mail reported, Obama settled for a flag, taken from one of the Chinooks, which the team had framed, signed, and inscribed. The message read: “From the Joint Task Force Operation Neptune’s Spear, 01 May 2011: For God and country. Geronimo.”
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