Much before the crack of dawn on May 2, a team of 40 CIA-led Navy SEALs, 24 on the ground, brought to an end a 10-year long manhunt. The crack team in a highly covert operation killed the chief architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 56 km from Islamabad, the country’s capital.

The CIA did a lot of groundwork prior to the operation and the interrogation of a captive in Guantanamo Bay detention camp got them the essential tip-off.

The operation:

• Four stealth helicopters flew in from US bases in Afghanistan and the elite Navy SEALs team came down by ropes in the darkness using night vision equipment
• The team burst through a door at bin Laden’s compound, blasting their way through a brick wall
• Gunfight ensued with two couriers and a woman on the first floor
• Team enters bin Laden’s room and shoots bin Laden’s wife as she rushes forward
• The leading SEAL shot Osama in the chest, another shot Osama in the head

Unconfirmed reports mention that one of the choppers developed mechanical problems and crash-landed. The helicopter was destroyed by the US Forces. The entire operation lasted 40 minutes.

Osama bin Laden was holed up in a two-storey house 1,000 yards from a Pakistani military academy.

The Navy SEALs Team 6 which is said to have carried out the operation consists of US’s quietest, most delicate killers because of their discreet work by sea, air or land. The team, according to reports, is part of a counter-terrorism group so specialised that no one can apply to join it.