How US Navy SEALs killed bin Laden

Under the cover of darkness, and almost complete international secrecy, an elite team of Navy SEALs closed in on the compound housing the world's most wanted man.

US President Barack Obama approved the precision raid with the orders resolute — capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

New details have today emerged about the raid and intense firefight involving crack US troops that ended with the death of the elusive al-Qaeda leader at his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The assault carried extraordinary risk, and not just from bin Laden and those with him in the compound.

The New York Times reported that as the sound of battle shook the night, Pakistan scrambled jets to respond to a military operation that its defence forces had not been informed was taking place.

In Washington, President Obama and his closest advisors sat and watched the drama unfold through a head cam on one of the SEALs' helmets.

"They had no idea about who might have been on there, whether it be US or somebody else," John O. Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said in a briefing on Monday.

"So we were watching and making sure that our people and our aircraft were able to get out of the Pakistani airspace."

And the tensest moment for those in the White House, he said, came when one of two specially outfitted Black Hawk helicopters that flew between 20 and 40 men and one dog into the compound, broke down.

Reports indicate it stalled as it flew over the 6m wall of the compound and prepared to land.

No troops from Navy SEAL Team Six were injured, and the operation was able to proceed as meticulously planned.

The residence in Abbottabad would have been identified six months earlier for rehearsals to have been run, a US army expert told AFP.

Reports have also suggested a detailed, life-size mock-up of bin Laden's residence had been built out of sight at Baghram, north of Kabul in Afghanistan, for training runs by the select unit.

The actual compound, about an hour's drive north from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, is at the end of a narrow dirt road and is roughly eight times the size of other homes in the area, The New York Times reported.

It has no telephone or Internet connections, and was perfect as a hideaway, completely off the digital radar.

When the US team, which had been hand-picked for the mission, stormed the residence early on Monday morning, they moved quickly and quietly, conducting a room-by-room search.

In the first small building, they found the wives and children of two of bin Laden's most trusted couriers.

As they entered the larger complex at the rear of the compound, gunfire erupted almost immediately. They climbed the stairs to the upper floors where they were confronted with the imposing figure of the wanted fugitive.

Officials confirmed the SEALs shouted to bin Laden to surrender, but he "resisted the assault force" and was shot in the head and killed near the end of an intense 40-minute gun battle, senior administration officials said.

At least one bullet entered just above his left eye.

Three men besides bin Laden were killed during the raid, one believed to be his son and the other two his couriers, according to an American official.

A woman, who may have been bin Laden's wife, was killed while shielding the terror leader and two other people were wounded.

Mr. Brennan said the raid was intended to capture bin Laden, though those who planned it assumed he would resist. "If we had the opportunity to take him alive, we would have done that," he said.

DNA evidence, facial recognition techniques and identification by one of the women in the compound enabled US officials to declare with almost 100 per cent accuracy that the corpse was that of bin Laden.

The killing, and subsequent burial at sea of the body, has been hailed as justice for those who suffered at the hands of the terrorism incited by bin Laden, but ends any hope some may have had to seen to see him prosecuted for his crimes.

US officials remain adamant that it marked an unprecedented success for the specialist operations team charged with carrying out the mission.

According to a US official, Navy SEALs — an acronym for sea, air and land — led the unit, which likely involved forces from across the armed services' navy, army, air force and marine ranks.

Dick Hoffmann, a Rand Corporation expert who spent 20 years in the unit, told AFP that since the beginning of former US president George W. Bush's "war on terror," these capture-kills have become the SEALs' forte.