down the road where it was a lot more subdued, people who were actually on their knees, praying. there was a somber side to this as well. we ll see as the morning develops who else starts to show up at ground zero. back to you guys. the news has only been known about six hours or so and how people are reacting is different. thanks. it s believed bin laden had been hiding out in the compound in abbottbad since last summer. it s confirmed by u.s. officials his body has been buried at sea according to islamic tradition. last night, president obama went on national television to tell the world a man responsible for so many thousands of deaths had finally been eliminated. today, at my direction, the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in abbottbad, 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
a year and a half ago they sent in thousands of troops for the first time in 40 years. it s a lawless place. it is a place where narco traffickers and militants, you know, run the place. and it was a perfect place for him to go. you have to remember this is we were fighting and we continue to fight a war in pashtun the southern part of afghanistan with pashtuns and 29 million pashtuns along the border of the northern part of pakistan and they supported bin laden. talk about the raid. when you were going after him in torah bora, a different kind of operation then in abbottabad, which is a big city, you know. in 2001 it was a chase. in 2001, kabul collapsed, he fled the city we chased him down to an area and were engaging him while he was on the run and we were on the run and we had very, very small number of people. i mean we went in with eight men initially, you know, and those eight guys raised the force of a couple thousands of the afghans and delta force came in with
zero. i ll be covering the crowds that are here and what they re saying about this. all right. the latest on the u.s. mission that eliminated the world s most wanted terrorist, osama bin laden. the al qaeda chief was killed yesterday, shot in the head during a fire fight with american forces in pakistan. one of his sons, two of his couriers were also killed, along with a woman described as a human shield. the operation was carried out with the cooperation of pakistani officials. bin laden was hiding in a million dollar mansion in a compound in abbottabad, that s in pakistan, about 60 miles north of islamabad. cia had been monitoring this location for months. the president said he got word this past august about the potential lead of where osama bin laden may be. you re looking at video now from geo news out of pakistan. it shows the compound in flames after u.s. helicopters and about two dozen navy s.e.a.l.s. shot the mastermind in the head. the mission took 40 minutes, the
this organization has a lot of forces, a lot of rivalries, different ideologies, different agendas. bin laden was able to unify al qaeda by launches this jihad against the united states. he was able to say it was he wanted to get back to a seventh century muslim empire which was borderless, which was extremely, you know, apparently attractive to many people. what i want to ask you about, paul, we ve covered this so long, nine years, eight months, you know, since 9/11, trying to get our hands on him, how surprised are you this is where he ended up, abbottbad, a military, garrison city as reza describes it, not in the border of afghanistan as people talked about. there s increased surprise that officials had indicated he could be in pakistan proper, hinting elements have known where he was. the fact that he was killed in this settled area of pakistan in this compound, this million
could it be possible that no military officials were aware of what s happening in there. that s a question that s going to be asked in the coming days and coming weeks. there s been a lot of speculation over the past decade ever since 9/11 where osama bin laden was hiding, a lot of speculation focused on the pakistan/afghanistan border. pakistani officials both civilian government and military officials, had repeatedly denied that osama bin laden was in pakistan and they called on to the u.s., look, if you know where he is, tell us and we ll help you find him. so ultimately, indeed, it does look like he was hiding in pakistan, not where most people thought he would be in the mountainous areas along the afghanistan border, but in a relatively modern affluent, garrison town of abbottbad. reza sayah, osama bin laden has supporters in pakistan and no surprise there.