| Osama bin Laden أسامة بن لادن | |
|---|---|
| March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011 (aged 54) | |
 Osama bin Laden | |
| Place of birth | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| Place of death | Abbottabad, Pakistan |
| Resting place | North Arabian Sea |
| Allegiance | Al-Qaeda |
| Battles/wars | Soviet war in Afghanistan War on Terror: |
Al-Qaeda confirmed the death on May 6 with posts made on militant websites, vowing to avenge the killing.[7] Bin Laden's killing was generally favorably received by U.S. public opinion;[8][9] was welcomed by the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, and a large number of governments;[10] but was condemned by some, including Fidel Castro of Cuba[11] and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip.[12] Legal and ethical aspects of the killing, such as his not being taken alive despite being unarmed, were questioned by others, including Amnesty International.[13]
Locating bin Laden
See also: Location of Osama bin Laden
The U.S. intelligence community effort to determine the current location of Osama bin Laden, which eventually resulted in the Abbottabad operation, began with a fragment of information unearthed in 2002, resulting in years of consequent investigation, followed by intensive multiplatform surveillance on the compound beginning in September 2010.[edit] Identity of his courier
Identification of al-Qaeda couriers was an early priority for interrogators at CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay detention camp, because bin Laden was believed to communicate through such couriers while concealing his whereabouts from al-Qaeda foot soldiers and top commanders.[14] Bin Laden was known not to use phones, as the US launched missile strikes against his bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 (Operation Infinite Reach) after tracking an associate's satellite phone.[15]By 2002, interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an al-Qaeda courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed from Kuwait).[14] In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational chief of al-Qaeda, revealed under interrogation that he was acquainted with al-Kuwaiti but that he was not active in al-Qaeda.[16]
In 2004, a prisoner named Hassan Ghul told interrogators that al-Kuwaiti was close to bin Laden as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libi. Ghul further revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time, which led U.S. officials to suspect he was traveling with bin Laden. When confronted with Ghul's account, Khalid Sheik Mohammed maintained his original story.[16] Abu Faraj al-Libi was captured in 2005 and transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006.[17] He told CIA interrogators that bin Laden's courier was a man named Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because both Mohammed and al-Libi had minimized al-Kuwaiti's importance, officials speculated that he was part of bin Laden's inner circle.[16]
In 2007, officials learned al-Kuwaiti's real name,[18] though they will not disclose the name nor how they learned it.[16] Since the name Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj al-Libi released by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011,[19] there was speculation that the U.S. assault on the Abbottabad compound was expedited as a precaution.[20] The CIA never found anyone named Maulawi Jan and concluded al-Libi made the name up.[16]
A 2010 wiretap of another suspect picked up a conversation with al-Kuwaiti. CIA paramilitary operatives located al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and followed him back to bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.[14] The courier and a relative (who was either a brother or a cousin) were killed in the May 2, 2011 raid.[16] Afterwards, some locals identified the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tareq Khan.[21] Arshad Khan was carrying an old, noncomputerized Pakistani identification card which said he was from Khat Kuruna, a village near Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials have found no record of an Arshad Khan in that area and suspect the men were living under false identities.[22]
In June 2011 Pakistani officials revealed the courier's name as Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed from Pakistan's Swat Valley. He and his brother Abrar and their families were living at bin Laden's compound.[23]
[edit] Bin Laden's compound
Main article: Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad
The CIA used surveillance photos and intelligence reports to determine the identities of the inhabitants of the Abbottabad compound to which the courier was traveling. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the compound was custom-built to hide someone of significance, very likely bin Laden.[24][25] Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife.[25]Built in 2004, the three-story[26] compound was located at the end of a narrow dirt road.[27] Google Earth maps made from satellite photographs show that the compound was not present in 2001 but did exist on images taken in 2005.[28] It is located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northeast of the city center of Abbottabad.[24] Abbottabad is about 100 miles (160 km) from the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (about 20 miles (32 km) from India). The compound is 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), a prominent military academy that has been compared with West Point in the United States and Sandhurst in Britain.[3] Located on a plot of land eight times larger than those of nearby houses, it was surrounded by a 12-to-18-foot (3.7–5.5 m)[25] concrete wall topped with barbed wire.[24] There were two security gates, and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high (2.1 m) privacy wall, tall enough to hide the 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) bin Laden.
There was no Internet or landline telephone service to the compound, and its residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors who set their garbage out for collection.[26] Local residents called the building the Waziristan Haveli, because they believed the owner was from Waziristan.[29]
[edit] Intelligence gathering
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency rented a home in Abbottabad from which a team staked out and observed the compound over a number of months. The CIA team used informants and other techniques to gather intelligence on the compound. The safe house was abandoned immediately after bin Laden's death.[1] The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency helped the Joint Special Operations Command create mission simulators for the pilots and analyzed data from an RQ-170 drone before, during and after the raid on the compound. The NGA also created three-dimensional renderings of the house, created schedules describing residential traffic patterns, and assessed the number, height and gender of the residents of the compound.[31]
The design of Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad may have ultimately contributed to his discovery. A former CIA official involved in the manhunt told The Washington Post, "The place was three stories high, and you could watch it from a variety of angles."[1]
The CIA used a process called "red teaming" on the collected intelligence to independently review the circumstantial evidence and available facts of their case that bin Laden was living at the Abbottabad compound.[32] An administration official stated, "We conducted red-team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did."[33] This duplicate analysis was necessary because "Despite what officials described as an extraordinarily concentrated collection effort leading up to the operation, no U.S. spy agency was ever able to capture a photograph of bin Laden at the compound before the raid or a recording of the voice of the mysterious male figure whose family occupied the structure's top two floors."[1]
[edit] Operation Neptune Spear
| Death of Osama bin Laden | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War on Terror | |||||||
| Map of Pakistan. Abbottabad is 34 miles (55 km) from the capital Islamabad, 167 miles (269 km) from Jalalabad Airfield, and 232 miles (373 km) from Bagram Airfield. Bagram is about 850 miles (1,370 km) from the North Arabian Sea. (Straight line distances. Travel distances significantly more.) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |  al-Qaeda | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 79 DEVGRU Operators 3 helicopters | 22 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 helicopter lost | 5 killed 17 captured (3 injured) | ||||||
[edit] Objective
The Associated Press cited two U.S. officials as stating the operation was "a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill unarmed people trying to surrender", but also that "it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering".[34] White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan stated after the raid: "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that."[35] CIA Director Leon Panetta stated on PBS NewsHour: "The authority here was to kill bin Laden...Obviously under the rules of engagement, if he in fact had thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But, they had full authority to kill him."[36]However, a U.S. national security official, who was not named, told Reuters that "'this was a kill operation', making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan".[37] Another source referencing a kill (rather than capture) order states, "Officials described the reaction of the special operators when they were told a number of weeks ago that they had been chosen to train for the mission. 'They were told, "We think we found Osama bin Laden, and your job is to kill him",' an official recalled. The SEALs started to cheer."[38]
[edit] Planning
The CIA briefed Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), about the compound in January 2011. McRaven said a commando raid would be fairly straightforward but he was concerned about the Pakistani response. He assigned a captain from SEAL Team 6 to work with a CIA team at their campus in Langley, Virginia.In addition to a helicopter raid, planners considered bombing the compound with B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. They also considered a joint operation with Pakistani forces.
President Obama met with the National Security Council on March 14 to review the options. The president was concerned that the mission would be exposed and wanted to proceed quickly. For that reason he also ruled out involving the Pakistanis. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military officials expressed doubts as to whether bin Laden was actually in the compound, and whether a commando raid was worth the risk. At the end of the meeting the president seemed to be leaning toward a bombing mission. Two U.S. Air Force officers were tasked with exploring that option further.[39]
The CIA was unable to rule out the existence an underground bunker below the compound. Presuming that one existed, 32 2,000 lb Joint Direct Attack Munitions would be required to destroy it.[40] With that amount of ordnance, at least one other house was in the blast radius. Estimates were that up to a dozen civilians would be killed in addition to those in the compound. Furthermore it was unlikely there would be enough evidence remaining to prove that bin Laden was dead. Presented with this information at the next Security Council meeting on March 29, President Obama put the bombing plan on hold. Instead he directed Admiral McRaven to develop the idea of a helicopter raid.
McRaven assembled a team drawing from Red Squadron, one of four that make up SEAL Team 6. Red Squadron was coming home from Afghanistan and could be redirected without attracting attention. The team had language skills and experience with cross-border operations into Pakistan.[39] Without being told the exact nature of their mission, the team performed two rehearsals in the U.S. on April 7 and April 13.[40]
Planners believed the SEALs could get to Abbottabad and back without being challenged by the Pakistani military. The helicopters to be used in the raid were designed to be quieter and less visible on radar. Since the U.S. had helped equip and train the Pakistanis, their defensive capabilities were known. Furthermore the U.S. had supplied F-16s to Pakistan on the condition they were kept at a Pakistani military base under 24-hour U.S. surveillance. The U.S. would know immediately if the Pakistanis scrambled their jets.
If bin Laden surrendered he would be held near Bagram Air Base. If the SEALs were discovered by the Pakistanis in the middle of the raid, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen would call Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and try to negotiate their release.[41]
When the Security Council met again on April 19, President Obama gave provisional approval for the helicopter raid. But he worried the plan for dealing with the Pakistanis was too uncertain. Obama asked Adm. McRaven to equip the team to fight its way out if necessary.[39]
McRaven and the SEALs left for Afghanistan to practice at a one acre full-scale replica of the compound built on a restricted area of Bagram known as Camp Alpha.[42][43]
On April 28 Admiral Mullen explained the final plan to the Security Council. To bolster the "fight your way out" scenario, Chinook helicopters with additional troops would be positioned nearby. Obama said he wanted to speak directly to Admiral McRaven before he gave the order to proceed. The president asked McRaven if had learned anything since arriving in Afghanistan that caused him to lose confidence in the mission. McRaven told him the team was ready.
On April 29 at 8:20 a.m., Obama conferred with his advisors in the Diplomatic Reception Room and gave the final go-ahead. The raid would take place the following day. That evening the president was informed that the operation would be delayed one day due to cloudy weather. On April 30 Obama called McRaven one more time to wish the SEALs well and to thank them for their service.
The president went out for a round of golf on May 1 but did not finish. At 1:22 p.m., Panetta, acting on the president's orders, directed McRaven to move forward with the operation. Shortly after 3 p.m., the president joined national security officials in the Situation Room to monitor the raid. They watched night-vision images taken from a drone while Panetta, appearing in a corner of the screen from CIA headquarters, narrated what was happening.[41]
[edit] Execution of the operation
[edit] Approach and entry
According to The New York Times, a total of "79 commandos and a dog" were involved in the raid.[27] The military working dog[51] was a Belgian Malinois named Cairo.[52] (The dog's specific orders are unclear, but he may have had bomb detection[53] training, or tracking[49] skills. According to one report, he was tasked with tracking "anyone who tried to escape and to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces".[49]) Additional personnel on the mission included a language translator,[49] the dog handler, helicopter pilots, "tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers".[43]
The SEALs flew into Pakistan from a staging base in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan after originating at Bagram Air Base in northeastern Afghanistan.[54]
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), an airborne U.S. Army Special Operations Command unit also known as the Night Stalkers, provided the two modified Black Hawk helicopters[55] that were used for the raid itself, as well as three much larger Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that were employed as backups.[38][43][49]
The Black Hawks appear to have been never-before-publicly-seen "stealth" versions of the helicopter that fly more quietly while being harder to detect on radar than conventional models;[56][57] due to the weight of the extra stealth equipment on the Black Hawks, cargo was "calculated to the ounce, with the weather factored in."[49]
The Chinooks, which were kept on standby on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way" between Jalalabad and Abbottabad, contained two additional SEAL teams consisting of approximately 24 DEVGRU operators[49] along with Army Rangers for a backup "quick reaction force" (QRF).[citation needed]
The 160th SOAR helicopters were supported by multiple other aircraft, including fixed-wing fighter jets and drones.[58] According to CNN, "the Air Force also had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters available".[58]
The raid was scheduled for a time with little moon light so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and undetected".[59] The helicopters used hilly terrain and nap-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on radar and alerting the Pakistani military.
According to the mission plan, one of the SEAL teams would fast-rope onto the roof of the compound while the team in the other would exit into the courtyard and make entrance from the ground floor.[60] As they hovered above the target, however, one of the helicopters suffered a hazard known as a vortex ring state aggravated by higher than expected air temperature ("a so-called 'hot and high' environment"[53]) and the high compound walls, "which blocked rotor downwash from diffusing"[53][61][62] causing the tail to "graze one of the compound's walls"[47] and "breaking a rotor".[63] The helicopter "rolled onto its side"[14] and the pilot quickly buried the aircraft's nose "to keep it from tipping over."[49] None of the SEALs, crew and pilots on the helicopter were seriously injured in the soft crash landing. The other helicopter then landed outside the compound and the SEALs scaled the walls to get inside.[64] The SEALs proceeded to blow their way through walls and doors with explosives.[49]
[edit] Killing
In addition to Osama bin Laden, three other men and a woman were killed in the operation. The individuals killed were bin Laden's adult son (likely Khalid,[66][67] possibly Hamza[40][68]), bin Laden's courier (Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti), a male relative of the courier[69] and the courier's wife.[22]
Al-Kuwaiti opened fire on the first team of SEALs with an AK-47 from behind the guesthouse door, and a firefight took place between him and the SEALs, in which al-Kuwaiti was killed.[3][70] A woman, identified as the courier's wife, was killed during this exchange. The courier's male relative was shot and killed, before he could reach a weapon found lying nearby, by the SEALs' second team on the first floor of the main house. Bin Laden's young adult son rushed towards the SEALs on the staircase of the main house, and was shot and killed by the second team.[3][47][67][70][71] An unnamed U.S. senior defense official said only one of the five people killed was armed.[72]
The SEALs encountered bin Laden on the second or third floor of the main building.[47][73] Bin Laden was "wearing the local loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a kurta paijama", which were later found to have €500 and two phone numbers sewn into the fabric.[40][63][70]
Bin Laden peered over the third floor ledge at the Americans advancing up the stairs, and then retreated into his room as a SEAL fired a shot at him, but missed.[74] The SEALs quickly followed him into his room, and shot him.[1] There were two weapons near bin Laden in his room, including an AK-47 assault rifle and a Russian-made semi-automatic Makarov pistol,[3][67] but according to his wife Amal, he was shot before he could reach his AK-47.[75] According to the Associated Press the guns were on a shelf next to the door and the SEALs did not see them until they were photographing the body.[49] Bin Laden was killed by a shot to his chest followed by one above his left eye, a technique sometimes referred to as a "double tap".[3]
Bin Laden's fifth wife, Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah was one of the injured women. When the SEALs entered the room in which bin Laden was hiding, his wife charged them and was shot in the leg. Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter Safia was struck in her foot or ankle by a piece of flying debris.[3][76][77] The Pakistani wife of one of the men killed was also injured.[78]
As the SEALs encountered women and children during the raid, they restrained them with plastic handcuffs or zip ties.[47] After the raid was over, U.S. forces moved the surviving residents outside[35] "for Pakistani forces to discover".[47]
While bin Laden's body was taken by U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left behind at the compound and later taken into Pakistani custody.[22][79]
[edit] Wrap-up
Time in the compound was spent neutralizing defenders;[65] "moving carefully through the compound, room to room, floor to floor" securing the women and children; clearing "weapons stashes and barricades",[47] including a false door, three AK-47s, and two pistols;[80] and searching the compound for information.[18] U.S. personnel recovered computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, thumb drives, and "electronic equipment" from the compound for later analysis.[38][81]
The helicopter that had made the emergency landing was damaged, and unable to fly the team out. It was consequently destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment, including an apparent stealth capability.[57] After they "moved the women and children to a secure area", U.S. forces "improvise[d] by packing the helicopter with explosives and blowing it up".[25][40][82] The assault team called in a backup helicopter to replace the one that was lost. While the official Department of Defense narrative did not mention the airbases used in the operation,[83] later accounts indicated that the helicopters returned to Bagram Airfield.[49] The body of Osama bin Laden was then flown from Bagram to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in V-22 Osprey (a tiltrotor aircraft) escorted by two U.S. Navy F/A-18s fighter jets.[84][85]
According to U.S. officials, bin Laden was buried at sea because no country would accept his remains. Muslim religious rites were performed aboard the Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea within 24 hours of bin Laden's death. Preparations began at 10:10 a.m. local time and at-sea burial was completed at 11 a.m. The body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a weighted plastic bag. An officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. Afterward, bin Laden's body was placed onto a flat board. The board was tilted upward on one side and the body slid off into the sea.[86]
[edit] Pakistan-U.S. communication
According to Obama administration officials, U.S. officials did not share information about the raid with the government of Pakistan until it was over.[6][87] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen called Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at about 3 a.m. local time to inform him of the Abbottabad Operation.[88]According to the Pakistani foreign ministry, the operation was conducted entirely by the U.S. forces.[89] Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials claimed that they were also present at what they called a joint operation;[90] President Asif Ali Zardari flatly denied this assertion.[91] Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir later confirmed that Pakistani military had scrambled F-16s after they became aware of the attack but that they reached the compound after American helicopters had left.[92]
[edit] Identification of the body
U.S. forces used multiple methods to positively identify the body of Osama bin Laden:- Measurement of the body: Both the corpse and bin Laden were 6 ft 4 in (193 cm); SEALs on the scene did not have a tape measure to measure the corpse, so a SEAL of known height lay down next to the body and the height was approximated by comparison.[63]
- Facial recognition software: A photograph transmitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for facial recognition analysis yielded a 90 to 95 percent likely match.[93]
- In-person identification: One or two women from the compound, including one of bin Laden's wives,[94] identified bin Laden's body.[93] A wife of bin Laden also called him by name during the raid, inadvertently assisting in his identification by U.S. armed forces on the ground.[95][96]
- DNA testing: The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by DNA testing[27][97] using tissue and blood samples taken from his sister who had died of brain cancer.[98] ABC News stated, "Two samples were taken from bin Laden: one of these DNA samples was analyzed, and information was sent electronically back to Washington, D.C., from Bagram. Someone else from Afghanistan is physically bringing back a sample."[93] According to a senior U.S. Defense Department official:
| “ | DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) analysis conducted separately by Department of Defense and CIA labs has positively identified Osama bin Laden. DNA samples collected from his body were compared to a comprehensive DNA profile derived from bin Laden's large extended family. Based on that analysis, the DNA is unquestionably his. The possibility of a mistaken identity on the basis of this analysis is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion.[99] | ” |
- Inference: Per the same Defense official, from the initial review of the materials removed from the Abbottabad compound the Department "assessed that much of this information, including personal correspondence between Osama bin Laden and others, as well as some of the video footage...would only have been in his possession."
[edit] Local accounts
Beginning at 12:58 a.m. local time, an Abbottabad resident sent a series of tweets describing the noise of helicopters hovering overhead—"a rare occurrence"—and several window-rattling blasts. By 1:44 a.m. all was quiet until a plane flew over the city at 3:39 a.m.[100] Neighbors took to their roofs and watched as American special forces stormed the compound. One neighbor said, "I saw soldiers emerging from the helicopters and advancing towards the house. Some of them instructed us in chaste Pashto to turn off the lights and stay inside."[101] Another man said he heard shooting and screams, then an explosion as a grounded helicopter was destroyed. The blast broke his bedroom window and left charred debris over a nearby field.[102] A local security officer said he entered the compound shortly after the Americans left, before it was sealed off by the army. "There were four dead bodies, three male and one female and one female was injured," he said. "There was a lot of blood on the floor and one could easily see the marks like a dead body had been dragged out of the compound." Numerous witnesses reported that power, and possibly cellphone service,[103] went out around the time of the raid and apparently included the military academy.[104][105] Accounts differed as to the exact time the blackout occurred. One journalist concluded after interviewing several residents that it was a routine rolling blackout.[106]ISI reported after questioning survivors of the raid that there were 17 to 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack and that the Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a bin Laden son. The ISI also said that survivors included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently bin Laden's. An unnamed Pakistani security official was quoted as reporting that one of bin Laden's daughters told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden had been shot dead in front of family members. The daughter also claimed that bin Laden was captured alive, then executed by American forces and dragged to a helicopter.[107][108][109]
[edit] Compound residents
U.S. officials said there were 22 people in the compound. Five were killed, including Osama bin Laden.[43] Pakistani officials gave conflicting reports suggesting up to 17 survivors.[78] The Sunday Times subsequently published excerpts from a pocket guide, presumably dropped by the SEALs during the raid, containing pictures and descriptions of likely compound residents.[110] The guide listed several adult children of bin Laden and their families who were not ultimately found in the compound.[111] Because of a lack of verifiable information, some of what follows is thinly sourced.[78]- 5 adults dead: Osama bin Laden a.k.a Abu Hamza, 54;[112] Khalid, his son by Siham (identified as Hamza in early accounts), 23;[78][111] Arshad Khan, a.k.a. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the courier, described as the "flabby" one by The Sunday Times, 33;[78][110] Tariq, the courier's brother, 30; and an unidentified woman, probably Arshad's Arab wife, age unknown.[113][114]
- 4 surviving women: Khairiah, bin Laden's third, Saudi wife a.k.a Um Hamza, 62;[78][110] Siham, bin Laden's fourth, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um Khalid, 54;[78][110] Amal, bin Laden's fifth, Yemeni wife, a.k.a. Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, 29 (injured);[3][78] and an unidentified woman, either Arshad Khan's second, Pakistani wife,[78] or Khalid's wife and coincidentally the Khan brothers' sister, age unknown (injured).[114]
- 5 minor children of Osama and Amal: Safia, a daughter, 9 (injured); a son, 5; another son, age unknown; and infant twin daughters.[3][110][115][116][117]
- 4 bin Laden grandchildren from an unidentified daughter killed in an airstrike in Waziristan. Two may be the boys, around 10, who spoke to Pakistani investigators.[78][118]
- 4 children of Arshad Khan: Two sons, Abdur Rahman and Khalid, 6 or 7; a daughter, age unknown; and another child, age unknown.[113][119]
No comments:
Post a Comment