BIN LADEN'S CHASE AND CAPTURE

Osama bin Laden eluded U.S. forces for nearly 10 years after September 11, 2001. Efforts to kill him have ranged wide over the years as the Taliban regime crumbled. Hear from the last journalist who interviewed bin Laden and see speculation over whether video messages from the 9/11 mastermind since 2001 are real.

Now the speculation over bin Laden's status comes to rest — after a firefight with a U.S. Navy SEALs team on Sunday, May 1, 2011, the al Qaeda leader was confirmed dead. Eight months after an original tip-off to the CIA, bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces less than 100 miles from the Pakistani capital in a million-dollar compound. Two modified MH-60 U.S. helicopters delivered 20 to 25 U.S. Navy SEALs to the compound under the command of Joint Special Operations Command in collaboration with the CIA, ABC reports. Navy SEALs stormed the compound and killed bin Laden and killed or captured the 22 people with him in a raid that lasted about 40 minutes, according to ABC News. U.S. operatives took bin Laden's body into custody and ferried it back to Afghanistan by one of the original MH-60 helicopters to confirm his identity. The other MH-60 copter suffered mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces.


A LOOK AT HOW THESE AMAZING U.S. OPERATIVES TRAIN

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DNA ANALYSIS

To identify bin Laden's body, U.S. officials matched the body's DNA sample to DNA taken from his late sister's brain, the Telegraph reports. After identification, bin Laden's body was buried at sea. Here's a look at how DNA analysis works.


BEHIND THE SCENES: BEFORE THE CAPTURE AND OPERATION

An operation of this scale and importance had to be carefully constructed and carried out, and crucial intelligence was gathered before U.S. forces were deployed. Dr. Ken James Ryan, a specialist in international criminal intelligence at California State University says there are several hints at how the operation was carried out. Firstly, intelligence had to trace one of bin Laden's couriers to the al Qaeda leader, likely confirmed through facial recognition technology by an NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) satellite or Predator drone. Once the Navy SEAL team was deployed, tactical operations (the location and seizing of bin Laden, dead or alive) had to be carried out swiftly. Careful planning, therefore, was critical, and the eight-month timeline between pinpointing bin Laden's location and carrying out the operation was expected, Ryan said.
"The initial locating of bin Laden in August is not surprising, with friendlies in the area needing to be sorted out from hostiles, time schedules when bin Laden would and would not be found, etc," Ryan said. "Acquiring this information takes time."


THE TEAM THAT KILLED THE 9/11 MASTERMIND

It was the famed Naval Special Warfare Development Group, better known as SEAL Team Six, and known throughout the military as DevGru, that killed bin Laden. But this was anything but a routine mission. This high-value target (HVT) required preparation and the raid required practice, so the group created a mock replica of the one-acre compound at an isolated section of Bagram Air Base and held trial runs for the raid in early April, National Journal reports.

DevGru reports to the president and belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, a diverse collection of classified task forces and special-missions units. They operate worldwide on classified presidential missions, and though the general public knows about the special SEAL unit, the group's tasks are rarely leaked to the public. Their existence is secretive even within the military, and they don't get public credit for their victories — but it's this covert nature that gets the job done. Since 9/11 these task forces have been instrumental in thwarting terrorist attacks around the globe.


PUBLIC REACTION TO BIN LADEN'S DEATH

Upon President Obama's announcement of bin Laden's death, tweets topped 4,000 per second as online revelers gathered to talk about the historic moment. Jubilant crowds gathered outside the World Trade Center grounds in New York City and outside the White House to express their glee at the President's announcement.
Celebrate a U.S. victory and historic moment with incredible content on our brave troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, who worked tirelessly to make bin Laden's fall possible.