Operation Neptune Spear - Raid on Osama Bin Laden's Hideout Compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan References Operation Neptune Spear On May 01, 2011, in a televised address to the Nation, U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed that Osama Bin Laden had been killed that day as a result of a US military operation, codenamed Neptune Spear, by US Special Operations Forces inside a compound in Bilal, a suburb of Abbottabad; a city of 100,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province home to to the headquarters of one of the brigades from the Pakistani Army's 2nd Division, as well as the Pakistani Military Academy, the country's equivalent to the US Military Academy at West Point. Abbottabad is located between Pakistan's capital Islamabad, and Peshawar, approximately 30 miles from Islamabad. The compound was reportedly a large million dollar property, built about 5 years prior to the operation, and was believed to have been made specifically for Osama Bin Laden. Equipped with 12-18 foot tall and thick walls topped with barbed wire, multiple interior walls, additional privacy walls, and 2 security gates, it nonetheless lacked internet and phone access.

It was suggested by US officials that the inhabitants of the compound probably had very little interaction with those around them. The Associated Press reported Osama Bin Laden's compound to be located only 100 yards away from a Pakistani Military Academy. Though the reported distance between the 2 sites varied in the immediate reporting, the location of the compound was clearly near or within the jurisdiction of Abbottabad Cantonment, controlled by the Pakistani military. Planning the Operation The operation came as a result of a lead that first emerged in August 2010, surrounding a courier for Osama Bin Laden operating out of Pakistan. The operation followed months of additional information-gathering, with President Obama chairing 5 National Security Council meetings. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) were among the agencies noted to have participated in the intelligence gathering effort. The courier was reported to have been a former protï¿½gï¿½ of Khalid Sheik Mohammed. The Washington Post reported that the compound used by Osama bin Laden was put under extensive surveillance by CIA agents, which included the establishment of a nearby safehouse, for months prior to the raid.

The surveillance effort was reported have been very costly, requiring approval from Congress for the reallocation of millions of dollars from within the budgets of various agencies to fund the operation. Following the raid by US Navy Seals, the safe house was closed and CIA assets moved. Planning for the raid itself was also extensive, beginning around March 2011. The planning process was reported to have involved the construction of a full size replica of the compound or sections of the compound at Harvey Point, North Carolina. Another mock compound was also said to have been constructed within a secret portion of Bagram Air Base. The raid itself was reported to have been launched from Jalalabad Airfield, also in Afghanistan. The Raid The raid, conducted by Joint Task Force Neptune, reported to consist of US Navy SEALs from Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU; also commonly referred to as SEAL Team 6) and helicopters from the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) , as well as possibly other elements, was designed to minimize collateral damage and risk to non-combatants in the compound and to Pakistani civilians in the area. The final order for the operation was given on the morning of 29 April 2011.

It consisted of a helicopter insertion after which a firefight ensued, resulting in the death of Osama Bin Laden. CIA Director Leon Panetta said that 25 Navy SEALs had conducted the raid. Accompanying the US Navy Seal team was a bomb-sniffing dog. US personnel were on the ground for approximately 40 minutes. Media sources reported that Pakistani Intelligence was involved in helping the United States track Bin Laden and that Pakistani intelligence operatives were on the ground during the operation. However, only US forces were reported to have been involved in the operation. Initial reports suggested that no Pakistani troops had been involved in the operation. The official US Government position was that no Pakistani personnel were involved in the operation. In addition, it was reported that the Pakistani government was only informed of the operation after the fact. Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan reported in a briefing on 2 May 2011, that the Pakistani Air Force scrambled fighter aircraft in response to the raid. In a White House press briefing on 3 May 2011, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that Osama Bin Laden resisted capture and was shot, but that he had been unarmed. Government sources reported that he was shot in the head.

His body was recovered by US forces and later authenticated as being that of Osama Bin Laden. Osama Bin Laden had reportedly been assigned the codename "Geronimo" during the operation. Following authentication, Osama Bin Laden's body was reportedly handled "in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition" and later buried at sea. This involved washing the deceased's body and then placing it in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag, a military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased body eased into the sea. No autopsy was performed on the body. During the raid, 3 other men, including one believed to have been one of Osama's adult sons were reported to have been killed. Osama bin Laden was later said to have been on the second floor of the target building, with the others being killed when the assaulting forces entered the ground floor. Subsequent reporting suggested that only one of the men, believed to have been a courier, was armed, but that the others were seen either moving threateningly toward the forces conducting the operation or toward weapons.

In addition, several women and children were also present at the compound. One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by one Osama's men. Two other women were also injured. Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan said in a briefing on 2 May 2011, that the woman killed had been being used as a human shield either for or by Osama Bin Laden, and may have attacked the forces conducting the operation. Senior Defense and Intelligence Officials said during a briefing later on 2 May 2011, that the woman who had been killed had been used as a human shield by one of the 4 military-age males on the compound. During that briefing, it was reported that one of the women who was wounded was with Osama Bin Laden and was identified as one of his wives, possibly the youngest. Osama was reported to have been living at the compound with 3 of his wives. In a White House press briefing on 3 May 2011, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the woman who was killed had been killed in the cross fire and had not been used as a human shield.

He also said the woman who was with Osama Bin Laden and who was wounded, had rushed the forces conducting the operation and had been shot in the leg. During the operation, no US personnel were injured, although a US helicopter used in the operation was originally reported to have suffered a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed. The remnants of the helicopter was recovered by members of the Pakistani military after the raid. The initial reports, including statements from US government officials, were that a total of 2 MH-60 Black Hawk and 2 MH-47 Chinook type helicopters had been used in the operation. Subsequent pictures of the wreckage of the down aircraft suggested that a new type, possibly incorporating stealth technology or noise reduction technology, had been used. The helicopter was also subsequently reported to have suffered from a failure in the so-called "hot and high" environment, rather than a mechanical failure. The air flow created by the compounds high walls, which blocked rotor downwash from diffusing, was also reported to have been a factor. The aircraft then entered a vortex, causing it to loose altitude rapidly. During the resulting hard landing, the aircraft was sufficiently damaged, including a complete loss of the tail rotor assembly, to warrant its destruction.

Aftermath The authentication process used to determine the deceased as being Osama Bin Laden included visual confirmation by the forces conducting the raid, visual confirmation by a woman at the scene identified as one of Osama Bin Laden's wives, and visual confirmation by CIA analysts of photographs taken with confirmed photographs of Osama Bin Laden. On the morning of 2 May 2011, CIA and other specialists in the intelligence community performed the initial DNA analysis matching a virtually 100-percent DNA match of the body against DNA of several Bin Laden family members. Hundreds of media storage devices were also recovered during the raid. Intelligence agencies were said to be pouring over them to determine their contents and potential intelligence value. It was expected that a recording of Osama Bin Laden, either audio or video, would emerge after the attack. US officials speculated that it was likely that Bin Laden's supporters had such a recording to be disseminated to his supporters in the event of his death. US Government officials noted, however, that Al-Qaeda was an organization that had been experiencing a variety of issues, including financial problem, well before the death of Osama Bin Laden.

It was unclear whether or not there would be someone to claim the $25 million bounty that the US had placed on information leading to the capture or death of Osama Bin Laden. Later in May 2011, the U.S. released a number of videos taken from Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound to the public. The videos were released without sound. On 10 May 2011, Joint Task Force Neptune, the raiding force, was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for the period from 17 March to 2 May 2011. NEWSLETTER Targeting Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill Operation Neptune Spear / Code Name Geronimo Seal Team Six Movie - YouTube Targeting Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill Operation Neptune Spear / Code Name Geronimo Seal Team Six Movie Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Mar 1, 2012 SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden Targeting Bin Laden DVD ---- ---- Navy Seal Team Six Do a Compound Raid In Pakistan Where al Qaeda Terrorist Leader Osama Bin Laden Is Hiding. The Seals Crash Their Advanced Black Hawk Chopper Which Forces Them To Move In Quickly And Capture Or Kill The Terrorist Ring Leader Before Pakistan Military Arrives so they Move In Fast and Terminate Bin Laden then Search The Compound For Intel That May Lead To Future Terror Attacks. The downed Black Hawk helicopter from the Bin Laden raid had to be destroyed with strategically placed explosives before the SEALs could leave the Abbottabad compound so it would not fall into the wrong hands and leave advanced technology with enemies. United States Conducted An Operation That Killed Osama Bin Laden, The Leader of al qaeda, A Terrorist Responsible for the Murder of Thousands. A Small Team of Americans Carried out The Operation With Extraordinary Courage and Capability.

The Death of Bin Laden Marks Most Significant Achievement to Date In Our Nations Effort To Defeat al qaeda Songs Used In This Edit are Soundtracks By: Hans Zimmer - Chevaliers de Sangreal - Da Davinci Code Hans Zimmer - Rock House Jail - The Rock Hans Zimmer - Kopano Part III / The Journey - Tears Of The Sun Targeting Bin Laden: Code Name Geronimo/Operation Neptune Spear Navy Seal Team 6 Zero Dark Thirty I Do Not Own The Content To This Video - It Was A Courtesy of the History Channel Category Operation Neptune Spear - The Death of Osama bin Laden (1) | S.O.G prev next Operation Neptune Spear – The Death of Osama bin Laden (1) The final stage of the elimination of Osama bin Laden was planned intensively for several months, but preparing the whole operation took years. It was one of the biggest operations that the US intelligence and security agencies (CIA, NSA) undertook in the last ten years. One of the blockbusters that filled the box office last year was Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, which unravels the Operation Neptune Spear during which the US special forces eliminated Osama bin Laden on the May 1st 2011.

May interesting details have surfaced thanks to the book and the film, but many episodes of this spectacular operation have remained untold. How did the US security agencies find their most dangerous enemy and how was the task done? How long did the preparations take and what did they include? The inside view on the top secret operation gives unknown details on the ways and methods of security agencies in top priority operations. The Intelligence from Gitmo The final stage of the elimination of Osama bin Laden was planned intensively for several months, but preparing the whole operation took years. It was one of the biggest operations that the US intelligence and security agencies (CIA, NSA) undertook in the last ten years. In the CIA headquarters in Langley, analysts and computer experts have been running names along the piles of different information from all corners of the globe, operating huge databases, and following the clues in search for the “solid” evidence on the possible location of the Al Qaeda leader. While the Langley guys were busy with their analyses and research, the CIA operatives collected new intelligence in the field and the war-zones around the world. At the same time, the interrogation officers were using their skills to extract information from Al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo and other detention camps.

One name started popping up more than the others – the one of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. A courier who was a confidant in Bin Laden’s inner circle, who attended the meetings, delivered messages and acted as a sort of personal secretary of the Al Qaeda leader. The first man who pointed to Al-Kuwaiti was Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Guantanamo detainee, the twentieth member of the 9/11 terrorist group. Using the “step-by-step” method, the CIA started putting together all known details on the courier Al Kuwaiti, including his psychological profile. The next step was to find out his location, which sparked an investigation which gave good results. In 2010, Al Kuwaiti used a phone to contact a known Al Qaeda member, who had also been “watched” by the CIA. It was the courier’s big mistake as at that point he was registered and never let out of sight. In July 2010, two Pakistani citizens who worked for the CIA spotted Al Kuwaiti driving through streets of Peshawar, Pakistan in a white SUV. They followed him the next few weeks and waited.

They noted everything down – where he lived, where he went, with whom he met. In the end, the courier led them right to Bin Laden’s doorstep. The courier leads to the target A month later, Al Kuwaiti drove himself to a large compound in Abbottabad, a city about 60 km north of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, the home of the Military Academy. The two-floor building in one of the neighborhoods which the courier used to frequent was big, surrounded by a high wall, and with a spacey courtyard, covered by security cameras. That detail was enough for the heads of the US security agencies to conclude that they hit something big. The Pakistanis who worked for the CIA, who immediately arrived on the spot and started their covert work, noticed bars and thick curtains on windows on one of the floors. The house had no land lines or internet connection. The walls were 3.6 meters high, with barbed wire on the top. Whoever lived there didn’t take out their garbage, like the neighbors, but burned it in the courtyard instead. Like they didn’t want anyone to go through its content. The children didn’t go to the local school, a private teacher coming now an then.

All these details pointed out that someone important was hiding inside. After the initial checks and observations, a huge operation was unleashed, which will eventually lead to elimination of the America’s most wanted. The first step was relentless data gathering, which included all available resources: human agents (HUMINT), electronic devices, satellites and high technology (SIGINT), and UAVs. This data was used to make analyses, which ultimately brought to the plan of the attack and the terminal action. The whole endeavor in locating and eliminating Bin Laden had several phases. During the first phase, satellites were used which kept the house in Abbottabad under 24h surveillance. Besides visual spy satellites, they also used SIGINT satellites for tapping phone calls. The analysts from NSA and NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) worked together with the CIA on tiniest details on the satellite footage. From time to time, they showed a tall man, who didn’t have to do the house chores as the other residents. However, they couldn’t positively identify him as Bin Laden. The eye in the sky After several week of surveillance, President Obama was told that there is a strong possibility that Osama bin Laden is hiding in a house in Abbottabad.

The president wanted the CIA and USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) to immediately start working together and definitely determine who is really hiding in the house in Abbottabad. In order to gather more data, the CIA had to get even closer to the target. That was the beginning of the second phase – drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), entered the fray. Known for their nickname “eye in the sky”, drones fire guided missiles but also transmit real time imaging from the spot. There were rumors that RQ-170 Sentinel, known as Beast from Kandahar, was used in hunting Bin Laden, because like B2 stealth bomber it also has reduced radar visibility. Sentinel sent more images from Abbottabad, but in the CIA still no one could guarantee that it was Bin Laden. They had to get even closer. The third phase of the operation was realized through ground-based surveillance, by installing several CIA agents in disguise in the neighborhood of the house. With that goal in mind, the CIA rented a house nearby, which was used as the base for day and night surveillance and observation.

In covert operations like this one, the key factor is for the agents to blend in the local community, and not draw attention at the same time. That is why they usually recruit agents from the same area, as was the case in this action. The agency in “the hood” From their watch post house, the CIA operatives used high powered zoom cameras and night vision devices. For eavesdropping on the people inside, they used laser beam devices, which record vibrations off the window pane on which the beam is directed. The complex software then converts those vibration patterns into sound. This allowed the operatives to overhear all the discussions inside, with no need for planting microphones, which in this case was impossible altogether. The CIA surveillance team spotted a tall man who used to walk in the courtyard of the suspicious house in Abbottabad, and tagged him “Walker”. They also determined that the residents included women, children and serving staff, which matched the profile of Bin Laden’s family. An important piece of evidence was provided by Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor recruited by the CIA. He ran a fake vaccination program, which included the (Bin Laden’s) children from the mysterious house. During the vaccination, Dr.

Shakil collected DNA samples from the children and in that way helped identify the US most wanted terrorist. The CIA director Leon Panetta with and his team immediately started planning a special operation. First, he called Vice admiral William McRaven, the chief of JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) in Pentagon. From that point, McRaven and his associates worked with the CIA for weeks and came with the Operation Neptune Spear. The President of the United States Barrack Obama, hesitated for a long time, even postponed the order for start three times – in January, February and March 2011. Finally, he gave in at the end of April, taking pressure from State Secretary Hillary Clinton, the CIA Director Leon Panetta and his Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett. Three options for the attack In March 2011, the President was briefed with three options. The first was a joint operation with a team of ISI, the Pakistani intelligence, but it was quickly rejected. In that endeavor the key to success was the secrecy, and by including Pakistanis in the game, the information would leek, as it had happened before.

The second option was an air raid by B2 Spirit stealth bombers, which would drop laser guided bombs on the house in Abbottabad. This option was also promptly overruled, as the potential risk of killing innocent civilians and possibly missing the target was too high. Besides, if the house was leveled with the ground, all the DNA material and every proof that Bin Laden was really killed would be destroyed. And that was always the worst scenario for the US Army and security agencies officials. The third option was an attack by a Special Forces team supported by helicopters. This option was also considered risky, the painful memories of the failed “Operation Eagle Talon” in Iran in 1980 and “Restore Hope” in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 being still fresh. In spite of this, the third plan has shown as the most probable. Soon enough, General McRaven is given an order to start preparations for a possible Special Forces action. They made a 1:1 version of Bin Laden’s compound in Nevada, which they used to drill every phase of the attack repeatedly, with the stress on timing and coordination of strike teams. Afterwards, they included the helicopter crews.

President Obama assembled his National Security team on April 28th 2011 in the White House Situation Room. Finally, he has to make a decision whether to approve the action or not. The President took everything into account, he listened everyone present, and asked their opinion one by one. The meeting took two hours. However, there was disagreement as the advisors estimated that there is 60% probability that Bin Laden is in the Abbottabad house. At the end, the President informed the closest advisors that he will make the final decision in the morning. In the morning, they assembled again and Obama looked at them and said, “Let’s do this.” Then he gave the order – start with the attack on Saturday, April 30th. However, because of bad weather the mission was delayed to the following day – May 1st. After midnight, the helicopters from 160. SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) with Navy SEALS from the elite Red Squadron of DEVGRU (the ex-SEAL Team 6) took off from the Forward Operating Base Fenty near Jalalabad, Afghanistan under the cover of darkness. To Be Continued… Hm...

/ February 10, 2014, 3:31 am Reply Pakistan ISI was informed. other wise america would have get fucked with there helicopters. Leave a Reply Operation Neptune Spear: The New Textbook for Special Operators | TIME.com Operation Neptune Spear: The New Textbook for Special Operators Send to Kindle AFP/Getty Images The tail of a crashed American helicopter sits beside the wall of the compound where Osama bin Laden hid until he was killed in a raid on May 2, 2011. Follow @TIME One year removed from the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, hundreds of hours of programing and print pages are being devoted to to telling us what it all means. In this week’s issue of TIME, journalist Peter Bergen and historian Graham Allison walk us through the events that led up to Navy SEALs storming bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on a moonless night one year ago. But to truly understand what the raid means in the study of special operations, you have to go back much further, past Operations Eagle Claw, the disastrous 1980 attempt to rescue hostages from the American Embassy in Tehran, to Operation Thunderbolt.

In July 1976, Israeli commandos stormed the airport at Entebbe, Uganda and rescued 105 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers (the animation on this video is second rate, but it gives a good overview of the raid). But wait a minute. What does a 36-year-old Israeli commando raid have to do with killing Osama bin Laden? Until last May, Operation Thunderbolt was considered the textbook direct action mission for students of special operations. For the past few years, Austin Long , an assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, taught the Entebbe raid in his class on special operations in low intensity conflicts. This year, he’s teaching the bin Laden raid as the new textbook example of a direct-action mission. Long talked to Battleland about the lessons that can be learned from both operations, and why the success of the bin Laden raid points to an even brighter future for U.S. Special Operations forces. Why is the Entebbe raid so important in the understanding of special operations? Entebbe was fundamentally a special operation that had strategic as well as tactical consequences. It also showed the ability to conduct special operations at a very long range.

Previously, most special operations were launched from somewhere relatively close by. At Entebbe, you have a special operation conducted at a range of hundreds of miles from Israel. It almost seemed impossible that they could pull this off. It’s the combination of distance and scale–you’re going to go hundreds of miles and rescue, not two hostages or ten hostages, but an entire planeload of hostages in a country that’s pretty hostile. It was extraordinarily impressive, what the Israelis were able to accomplish one of the textbook special operations, certainly the most textbook modern special operation conducted over a long distance. What are the most important lessons you’re teaching your students about the bin Laden raid? The thing I point out that made it a success is the intelligence preparation. There was a fairly tight timeline, but still good intelligence preparation. In the bin Laden raid we had a lot better imagery than the Israelis had access to in the 1970s. We had some intelligence collection on the ground, which the Israeli’s didn’t have. And I highlight the importance of rehearsal. In both cases, the two organizations did as much rehearsal as they could.

The U.S., partly due to resources, was able to do a little more in terms of building an accurate model to do the rehearsal. The bin Laden raid goes off extraordinarily well. You have the helo crash, but you don’t really lose anyone. The target’s actioned more or less perfectly. I teach from Admiral [William] McRaven’s book and highlight the importance of repetition; purpose–the bin Laden raid had a very clear purpose; speed of action–there was no real loitering on the target; all of these things McRaven talked about in his book were clearly present in the bin Laden raid. That helps explain why it was so successful. Columbia / Saltzman Institute The American Navy SEALs didn’t have intelligence on the inside of the house. How important was their ability to be flexible and adapt to a foreign environment in raid with this kind of speed? That flexibility is crucially important. Here the U.S. had a little bit of an advantage over the Israelis at Entebbe in the sense that, as several special operators have pointed out, some U.S. Special Operations forces have been doing operations similar to the bin Laden raid essentially nightly. The basic way you do that kind of building takedown, U.S.

Special Operations forces have practiced almost nightly for a decade. There’s an enormous competency that’s been built up in what’s called Close Quarter Battle. And how important was the relationship between the Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA in preparing and executing the bin Laden raid? The military and the Agency have had a sort of checkered past. It kind of went south after the Iran hostage rescue. There were a lot in the U.S. military who thought the Agency let them down in terms of intelligence support. But the Agency had worked a lot, and the military had worked a lot in the 90s to try and make that better, but nothing compared to being forced to work cheek by jowl, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in other places as well. The bin Laden raid was conducted under Title 50 authority; it was a considered a covert action. So you had an elite special operations unit, or pieces of units, that were essentially put under CIA authority. That shows the level of comfort the Agency and the military have come to over the past decade. What are the most important lessons we can take away from the bin Laden raid, moving forward? The bin Laden raid is going to be one of the most studied operations in history.

Like Entebbe, it had not just a tactical success, but a strategic success. It’s not the end of al Qaeda, but it’s a huge victory for the United States and gives the American people a sense of closure in the same way the rescue at Entebbe validated the Iraelis’ ability to resist being terrorized. They’re alike in that sense. They show that special operations can have a tactical impact, but also a strategic impact. Operation Neptune Spear - YouTube Operation Neptune Spear Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Oct 4, 2011 An edit of the bin laden shoot to kill documentary, shortened to only the action scenes, with two steps from hell music. Footage is from the Channel 4 program Bin laden: Shoot to kill. I do not own the music or video footage.

Songs are: Osama bin Laden killed: Behind the scenes of the deadly raid - Telegraph Al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden killed: Behind the scenes of the deadly raid When President Obama was informed that the world's most infamous fugitive could well have been tracked down, preparations for Operation Neptune Spear were put in place. Philip Sherwell tells the story. Image 1 of 2 By Philip Sherwell , New York 7:22PM BST 07 May 2011 Follow Hussain Jaffri was watching a film on television with his wife when he heard the distinctive whirr of a helicopter swooping low overhead after midnight last Monday morning. Even in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, the timing and height seemed strange, and Mr Jaffri rushed to the roof of his house for a better view. From there, he saw a helicopter hovering above a compound just 200 yards away. "It came from the hillside, flew over the compound, then my house, then five minutes later there were three small blasts," he recalled. Only later did he realise that he was witnessing the dramatic conclusion of the biggest manhunt in history.

Two US Black Hawk helicopters, their rotors heavily modified to reduce detection by radar, had skimmed across north-western Pakistan from American bases in Afghanistan after President Barack Obama gave the final go-ahead for Operation Neptune Spear. On board were two dozen commandos from the Team Six unit of the Navy SEALs special forces - an elite inside an elite so secret that the US authorities have never publicly acknowledged their existence. Two Chinooks carrying back-up forces followed behind. Related Articles Obama meets US Seal raid team 06 May 2011 The commandos had erupted in deafening cheers, fists pumping the air, when they were called together a few weeks earlier and told the target for their mission. They had been training for weeks on a mock-up a compound with a three-storey building at its heart. Now they had learned the name of their quarry - Osama bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist mastermind of the 9/11 atrocities, who CIA chiefs believed was living on the top floor with his family. "When the team was told that Osama bin Laden was the target, a roar went up," Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL officer who headed an al-Qaeda targeting unit, told The Sunday Telegraph.

"A lot of these guys have been involved in this war for more than nine years. They had made great personal sacrifices and seen comrades killed and disabled. And now, after all those years, they finally had the chance to bring him to justice for his victims, their families and the world." Yet the raid that will go down as one of the most successful commando operations in history almost ended in disaster right at the start. Plans for the SEALs to abseil into the compound were abandoned when one of the hovering choppers suffered lift problems and the pilot was forced to conduct a controlled "hard landing", striking a wall on the way down. Back in Washington, the setback raised the awful spectre of the failure to rescue hostages held at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1980, and the disastrous "Black Hawk Down" 1993 assault in Somalia. But the other Black Hawk landed safely and all 24 commandos jumped to the ground, accompanied by a translator and an explosive-sniffing dog. The men split into smaller teams and one group swept towards a guesthouse.

This building was home to the compound's owner, known locally as Arshad Khan, a Pashtun businessman who hailed from Pakistan's troubled frontier zone with Afghanistan. Reserved but polite, he would give pet rabbits to local schoolchildren, but did not generally encourage visitors; the high perimeter walls outside his compound, he explained, were necessary because of a bitter family feud. In fact, he was known within al-Qaeda's highest echelons as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the personal messenger for several years for bin Laden. His movements had first alerted the CIA to the fortified compound less than a mile from Pakistan's top military academy - the country's Sandhurst or West Point. Despite initial US reports of a prolonged firefight, it later emerged that only Kuwaiti offered armed resistance during the raid, opening fire from behind the guesthouse door before he was slain in a hail of bullets. Other commandos stormed the main building, killing Kuwaiti's brother - known as Tareq Khan - on the ground floor and then shooting dead bin Laden's 20-year-old son Khalid as he rushed down the stairs towards them, according to the latest US version of events. Both were unarmed.

A fourth person was also shot dead - although even nearly a week later, the identity remains unclear. US officials said it was a woman, believed to be the wife of one of the brothers; Pakistani sources said it was another man. The commandos, equipped with night vision goggles, helmet-mounted video cameras and communications equipment linking them to aircraft overhead, surged upstairs past barricades, blowing up blocked doorways with explosives. Amid the chaos, the SEALs got their first sight of the world's most wanted man as he peered out from a doorway. Bin Laden ducked back inside the room as the commandos opened fire, missing with the first shot in the darkness. With bullets flying, a piece of shrapnel or debris then struck his screaming 12-year-old daughter Safia in her foot or ankle. Her mother, bin Laden's fourth wife, rushed at the advancing men and was shot in the lower leg. And with bin Laden retreating into the room, two shots to the chest and above the left eye cut him down - a "double tap" in military terminology.

He turned out to be unarmed - contrary to earlier US accounts that he had fired off shots while using his wife as a human shield - but there was an AK-47 assault rifle and Russian Makarov pistol in the room. "He was retreating," said a Pentagon official. "You don't know why he's retreating, what he's doing when he goes back in there. Is he getting a weapon? Does he have a [suicide] vest?" The SEALs made a preliminary facial identification that the dead man was bin Laden and a team leader delivered news of the kill via a microphone in his helmet. The message "Geronimo EKIA" (the code name for bin Laden and acronym for "enemy killed in action") was relayed to CIA director Leon Panetta at the agency's headquarters. He in turn passed the historic message to President Barack Obama and his national security team, who were following events from the White House's top-security Situation Room. "We got him," was the commander-in-chief's response. Back in the Abbottabad compound, the SEALs' work was not done. They swept through the buildings, collecting a "mother lode" of intelligence material - computers, cell phones, thumb drives and written documents.

They then headed back into the courtyard where the grounded helicopter had been blown up in an attempt to prevent its "stealth" technology falling into Pakistani hands. A Chinook joined the operation to ferry out the raid team, all uninjured. After 38 mins on the ground - eight minutes longer than planned in training because of the crashed Black Hawk - the helicopters took off, before the Pakistani military had scrambled forces to the site. There was an additional "passenger" on the way out - the body of bin Laden. Pakistani security officials arrived to chaotic scenes. Three women - all believed to be wives of bin Laden - and at least 12 children were left behind, some with their hands tied and mouths taped, others wailed hysterically. Four bodies were strewn around the compound, blood pouring from their wounds. Safia was cradling the head of her injured mother in the room where she had just seen her father gunned down. "I am Saudi," she told the officials matter-of-factly. "Osama bin Laden is my father." The American forces first ferried the terrorist's body to the USS Carl Vinson for DNA tests to confirm a match with members of his extended family.

His body was then wrapped in a white shroud while Islamic rites were administered and dropped into the Arabian Sea in a weighted bag, to ensure his final resting place could not become a shrine for extremists. The raid was the culmination of years of painstaking detective work by CIA agents, after Kuwaiti's name and role had first come up in questioning of al-Qaeda detainees at secret sites in eastern Europe. Then last year came the key breakthrough when US intelligence listened in to a phone exchange with an old friend. "Where have you been?" inquired the caller, whose number the agents had. "What are you doing now?" Kuwaiti's response was vague: "I'm back with the people I was with before." But CIA agents realised they could have hit pay-dirt if Kuwaiti was signalling, however obliquely, that he was back at the side of the al-Qaeda leader. And they now had his phone number to track him. Pakistanis working for the CIA spotted Kuwaiti's vehicle in Peshawar and he was eventually tracked to the compound in Abbottabad, despite elaborate subterfuge tactics. US intelligence then began a scrutiny operation so intense and costly that it required special funding.

From the air, satellites and eavesdropping technology monitored the compound around the clock, but with no telephone lines or Internet, it proved impenetrable. CIA agents also established a nearby safe house to watch the property around the clock. But although they captured images of a distinctively tall man walking back and forth behind the compound walls, they never established a clear view of the face of "the pacer". The weight of circumstantial evidence was compelling, however. Mr Obama was informed that the world's most infamous fugitive could well have been tracked down and preparations for Operation Neptune Spear were put in place. US intelligence teams are this weekend poring over the material retrieved from the compound. They have already established that bin Laden was much more than simply a figurehead figure during his fugitive years, taking an operational interest in plots such as one to attack US railways on this year's 10th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks. For those involved in such hunts, the success of Operation Neptune Spear is an inspiring illustration of the merit of dogged intelligence work. As former CIA director Michael Hayden noted last week, the road to bin Laden's lair was not even built "brick by brick", but "pebble by pebble".

Question: Who was the target of Operation Neptune Spear?
Answer: Osama Bin Laden