Details shared on raid of bin Laden compound
Published 8:18 am Monday, May 2, 2011
Late Sunday night, senior officials in the Obama Administration offered reporters a few details on how Osama bin Laden had been found and killed. The White House then posted a transcript of that briefing.
You can read the transcript here.
Getting to the point of what happened, officials said:
“Our team was on the compound for under 40 minutes and did not encounter any local authorities while performing the raid. In addition to Osama bin Laden, three adult males were killed in the raid. We believe two were the couriers and the third was bin Laden’s adult son.
“There were several women and children at the compound. One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant. Two other women were injured.
“During the raid, we lost one helicopter due to mechanical failure. The aircraft was destroyed by the crew and the assault force and crew members boarded the remaining aircraft to exit the compound. All non-combatants were moved safely away from the compound before the detonation.”
One other notable though not surprising comment:
“We shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan. That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel. In fact, only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance.”
