WASHINGTON — U.S. officials said the helicopter raid in Pakistan was carried out by CIA paramilitaries together with the elite Navy SEAL Team Six. The U.S. team took custody of Osama bin Laden’s remains, which American officials said were being handled in accordance with Islamic tradition.
Officials also said they believe the death puts bin Laden’s al-Qaeda on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse, but there was no word on the whereabouts of bin Laden’s second- in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
A senior administration official said President Barack Obama gave the final order for U.S. officials to go after bin Laden on Friday. The raid occurred in the early morning hours Sunday.
Administration officials offered some details of the operation.
Based on statements given by U.S. detainees, intelligence officials have known for years that bin Laden trusted one al-Qaeda courier in particular, and they believed he might be living with him in hiding. In November, intelligence officials found out where he was living, a huge fortified compound in an affluent suburb of Islamabad. It was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet high, topped with barbed wire. There were two security gates and no phone or Internet running into the house.
Intelligence officials believed the $1 million home was custom-built to harbor a major terrorist. CIA experts analyzed whether it could be anyone else, but time and again, they decided it was almost certainly bin Laden.
Three adult males were also killed in Sunday’s raid, including one of bin Laden’s sons, whom officials did not name. One of bin Laden’s sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al-Qaeda.
