PAKISTAN - US Relations In Jeopardy After OSAMA BIN LADEN Death?

The killing of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9 /11 , in a ground operation carried out exclusively by US troops on late Sunday night near Pakistan's military academy in Abbottabad, could jeopardize relations between Islamabad and Washington. For hours, Pakistan kept mum over the news of bin Laden's death. It broke its silence about 11 hours after the incident when the country's foreign office confirmed that the operation against bin Laden was entirely the handiwork of the US forces. The statement came after long hours of deliberations and brainstorming between the country's top civilian and military leadership in the Pakistan president house at Islamabad. "In an intelligence driven operation, Osama bin Laden was killed in the surroundings of Abbottabad in the early hours of this morning. This operation was conducted by the US forces in accordance with declared US policy that Osama bin Laden will be eliminated in a direct action by the US forces, wherever found," Tehmina Janjua, Pakistan's foreign office spokesperson said. Following Janjua's statement, Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gilani called the killing of Osama bin Laden a great victory. "It is Pakistan's stated policy not to allow its soil for terrorist attacks against any country. Pakistan's political leadership, parliament, state institutions and the whole nation are fully united in their resolve to eliminate terrorism," Gilani said, adding that he didn't know the details of the US operation. Pakistan's military has not released any statement about bin laden's killing. Some observers believe that Pakistan would like to be seen as not having helped in this operation because it would become the immediate target of the terrorist network. However, Pakistan's former ISI chief, General Hameed Gul, said that Osama may have been in Pakistan for treatment. "Osama's presence raises questions about the Pakistan intelligence's ability," he said. Gul was critical of US activities in Pakistan. "Americans have been given a free hand in Pakistan and they do whatever they want. They have hoodwinked us and are after Pakistan's nuclear assets." He said there will be a backlash from al-Qaida if it transpires that Pakistan helped the US in this operation. The death of bin Laden in Abbottabad, a city mostly dominated by Pakistan's military, has raised many questions regarding the role of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)whether his whereabouts were known to the spy agency. Bin Laden was not living in an ordinary residence. The walls of three- storey building were 12- to 18 ft high, topped with barbed wire. Access to the compound was severely restricted. Bin Laden's compound was roughly eight times larger than other houses in the area. Since the start of the war on terror, Pakistani leaders have denied the presence of bin Laden in the country. His death on Sunday night caught the Pakistani leadership unawares. His presence just next to the Kakul military academy in Abbottabad which produce scores of officers every year for the Pakistan's army came as a big surprise. Contrary to frequent media/ intelligence speculation in the last several years that Bin Laden could be hiding in the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan or even across the border in Afghanistan , the al-Qaida's iconic leader was found in a rather peaceful and scenic suburb of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Sources inside Peshawar's US consulate informed TOI that the American officials working in the north-western city were suddenly told on Friday to leave because of threats of their abductions. The killing of bin Laden came as relations between the US and Pakistan have reached to its lowest point since the start of the war against terror. Since 9 /11 , the US has given the Pakistan's military nearly $20 billion for counter-terrorism campaigns. The US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , Admiral Mike Mullen, during his last visit to Islamabad, publicly criticized Pakistan's military for not acting against al-Qaida linked insurgent groups sheltering in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan. However, last week Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, told the passing out parade of cadets from the Kakul military academy that Pakistan had broken the back of terrorism in the country. The killing of bin Laden within few hundred metres distance from the military academy has evaporated Kiyani's tall claim into thin air. 9 /11 mastermind Osama bin Laden dead.

In Pakistan, An Embarrassed Silance On Killing Of Bin Laden

Pakistan faced enormous embarrassment on Monday after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces, raising questions over whether its military and intelligence were too incompetent to catch him themselves or knew all along where he was hiding. The killing of the world's most- wanted man in a house just a few hundred meters from Pakistan's version of the West Point military academy will only fuel suspicions that the country has been playing a double-game over Islamist militants and al Qaeda. Analysts say it would be a stretch to believe Pakistan's spy agency did not know bin Laden was living in a town just a couple of hours up the road from Islamabad: if it did know, the country was essentially caught red-handed shielding him from capture. "There will be a lot of tension between Washington and Islamabad because bin Laden seems to have been living here close to Islamabad," said Imtiaz Gul, a Pakistani security analyst. " This is a serious blow to the credibility of Pakistan." SNARED BEHIND PAKISTAN'S BACK Washington has in the past accused Pakistan of maintaining ties to militants targeting U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan . Relations soured further in recent months over U.S. drone attacks and CIA activities in the country that have fueled anti-American sentiment. For years, however, Pakistan had maintained it did not know bin Laden's whereabouts, vowing that if Washington had actionable intelligence, its military and security agencies would act on it. In October 2009 , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced dismay that bin Laden and other prominent militants had not yet been caught and suggested Pakistani complicity, telling newspaper editors in Lahore she found it " hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to." Neither Pakistan's spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), nor its military spokesmen returned repeated calls for comment on Monday. Adding to the silence, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani have said nothing publicly about the operation. Bin Laden was killed in a dramatic night-time raid by U.S. helicopters on his hideout in Abbottabad, home to Pakistan's main military academy. President Barack Obama, speaking in a hastily announced late-night news conference, said cooperation from Pakistan had helped lead U.S. forces to bin Laden. But American and Pakistani sources familiar with details of the operation said U.S. forces had snared bin Laden virtually behind Pakistan's back. That the mastermind of the September 11 , 2001 , attacks on the United States was not hiding in mountains along the border but in relative comfort in a town hosting the main military school and home to scores of officers will bolster those who have long argued that Pakistan has been playing a duplicitous hand. "The evidence suggests it was done totally by the Americans, and the Pakistan military, they have been informed at the 11 th hour," said Hassan Askari Rizvi, an independent political analyst. "There is distrust between the two intelligence agencies and ... this is very similar to what the Americans did when they fired missiles on Osama's training camps in August 1998. " At that time, the United States gave Islamabad just 90 minutes' notice that it would retaliate for two embassy bombings in Africa because it was worried Pakistan would tip off the Afghan Taliban, who in turn could have warned bin Laden. "This operation was conducted by the U.S. forces in accordance with the U.S. policy of hunting down Osama wherever he was supposed to be," said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan High Commissioner to Britain, speaking to Sky News. "They successfully eliminated him and subsequently they informed the president of Pakistan this morning of the event. " BACKLASH POSSIBLE IN PAKISTAN Just how much the Pakistani military knew of the raid on bin Laden's mansion hideout is not clear. For one thing, analysts say, it would have been difficult for the U. S. Special Forces to act without some logistical military assistance on the ground. It is also possible that Pakistan allowed the operation to go ahead as part of a deal with Washington on its stake in the endgame in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are due to start withdrawing in July after nearly 10 years of war. But the government and security agencies had one strong reason for staying silent and letting Washington take the credit for the raid: fear of a public backlash for working so closely with the United States to nab a man who has in the past been popular in Pakistan. Hours after the assault, about 200 Islamists held a rally in the city of Quetta in the southwestern province of Baluchistan to condemn the killing of bin Laden. The protesters, from a small Islamist party, chanted "down with America," and "Long live Osama bin Laden." "He was a great holy warrior," said Mufti Kifayatullah, a lawmaker from Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a hardline Islamic group, said while speaking in the provincial assembly in Peshawar. "Osama was the name of an ideology and an ideology does not die with the death of a person. Today was the blackest day in the history of Pakistan." Popular news anchors with alleged ties to the spy agencies referred on air to bin Laden as a "shaheed," or martyr. And Imran Khan, the cricketer- turned-populist-politician, said Washington should immediately end the war in Afghanistan because Pakistan would pay the price for bin Laden's death. "There will be a backlash from supporters of Osama bin Laden, who will think Pakistan has a role in it, and secondly there will be a pressure from America because of the very fact that he (Laden) was found in Pakistan," he told Geo TV.

BIN LADEN'S DEATH : What This Mean's For Pakistan ISI

When U.S. President Obama called Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to tell him the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. citizens in a lightening raid not far from the Pakistani capital last night, he also instructed his team to similarly inform their Pakistani counterparts. The question is, who was surprised when they picked up the phone? That bin Laden had been living in a specially constructed compound less than an hours' drive from Pakistani military HQ, and in the same town as the country's premier military academy, makes the near constant denials by Pakistan's intelligence agencies that the terror group leader was in the country difficult to swallow. Sure, there are at times a Keystone-cops element to the operational methods of the agencies—those assigned to trail foreign journalists in the country are less than subtle in their surveillance methods: One once asked me my address, as he was sitting in my house, another decided that quizzing my driver about my activities was far less work than actually following me to interviews—but bumbling or not, they are ubiquitous. The crackle and click of telephone lines is the constant reminder that no conversation over the phone is private, the crew-cut men in beige that materialize whenever I start asking questions proof that one is never quite alone in Pakistan. So the idea that absolutely no one but American intelligence knew who was living in that multi-million dollar compound beggars belief. Obama was careful to thank Pakistani assistance in the raid, but how, exactly, the Pakistanis assisted will be a key part of understanding the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. going forward. Just a few weeks ago, U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen told Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn that the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had a “ relationship” with the al Qaeda affiliated Haqqani network: "It's fairly well known that the ISI has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network…. Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen…..So that' s at the core - it's not the only thing -- but that's at the core that I think is the most difficult part of the relationship.” The Haqqani network is thought to be behind several gruesome attacks on foreign soldiers and embassies in neighboring Afghanistan, including the 2009 attack on the Indian Embassy there that killed 17 and wounded 63. More worryingly is recent evidence that the ISI may have had links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, in which 10 well-trained Pakistani militants coordinated a bombing and shooting attack at several landmarks that killed 164. At a trial slated for May 16 th David Headley, the Pakistani American accused of assisting LeT in reconnaissance for the attack, is expected to implicate the ISI, confirming long held suspicions by both American and Indian authorities, as well as many Pakistanis. Defenders of the ISI say that it is their job to maintain contacts with groups like that as part of their intelligence gathering methods. One spokesman told me that the ISI has infiltrators in the terror groups just like the FBI has people undercover in the Mafia. That may be the case. But either way the ISI isn't going to come out of this well. Either they knew about bin Laden and waited to inform the U.S., or they were oblivious to the presence of a massive, multi- million dollar compound in their back yard, one so secretive that the residents burned their own trash. That doesn't augur well for Pakistan's ability to tackle the next terrorist threat that comes out of the woodwork.

Pakistan Faces Presuse After Osama Killed

Pakistan declared the killing of Osama bin Laden a "major setback" to global terrorism but it will inevitably come under pressure to explain how the al Qaeda leader was holed up in a mansion near a military facility. Bin Laden was killed in a dramatic night-time raid by US helicopters and troops on his hideout in Abbottabad, a town that is home to a military academy and less than two hours' drive from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "Osama bin Laden's death illustrates the resolve of the international community, including Pakistan, to fight and eliminate terrorism," the government said in a statement. "It constitutes a major setback to terrorist organisations around the world." However, it was not clear whether the Pakistan military was involved in the operation and there was no official comment from the government for several hours after the news of bin Laden's killing broke, raising the possibility that Islamabad was taken by surprise. That bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 , 2001 , attacks on the United States, was not hiding in mountains along the border but in relative comfort near a military academy will bolster those who have long argued that Pakistan has been playing a duplicitous hand. Just 10 days ago Pakistan's army chief addressed army cadets at that very academy, saying the country's military had broken the back of militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban. Washington has in the past accused Pakistan of maintaining ties to militants targeting U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Relations have soured in recent months over U.S. drone attacks and CIA activities in the country. Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency, the ISI, has long been suspected of links to al Qaeda's precursor, the Haqqani network, cultivated during the 1980 s when Jalaluddin Haqqani was a feared battlefield commander against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Pakistan's arch-rival, India, was quick to comment, saying the news underlined its "concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan." "For some time there will be a lot of tension between Washington and Islamabad because bin Laden seems to have been living here close to Islamabad," said Imtiaz Gul, a Pakistani security analyst. "If the ISI had known, then somebody within the ISI must have leaked this information," Gul said. "Pakistan will have to do a lot of damage control because the Americans have been reporting he is in Pakistan ... this is a serious blow to the credibility of Pakistan." FLAMES, GUNSHOTS, A BLAST Abbottabad is a popular summer resort, located in a valley surrounded by green hills near Pakistani Kashmir. Islamist militants, particularly those fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir, used to have training camps near the town. A Reuters reporter in the town on Monday said bin Laden's single- storey residence stood fourth in a row of about a dozen houses, a satellite perched on the roof above a walled compound. A helicopter covered by a sheet sat in a nearby field. Mohammad Idrees, who lives around 400 meters from the house, said local residents were woken in the night by the sound of a big explosion. "We rushed to the rooftop and saw flames near that house. We also heard some gunshots," Idrees said. "Soon after the blast, we saw military vehicles rushing to the site of the blast." Another resident, Nasir Khan, said that commandos had encircled the compound as three helicopters hovered overhead. "All of a sudden there was firing toward the helicopters from the ground," said Khan, who had watched the drama unfold from his rooftop. "There was intense firing and then I saw one of the helicopters crash." A Pakistani military helicopter crashed near Abbottabad on Sunday night, killing one and wounding two, according to local media. It was unclear if the crash was related to bin Laden's death, but witnesses reported gunshots and heavy firing before one of two low-flying helicopters crashed near the academy. Sohaib Athar, whose profile says he is an IT consultant taking a break from the ratrace by hiding in the mountains, sent out a stream of live updates on Twitter about the movement of helicopters and blasts without realizing it was a raid on the world's most hunted man. Some of his early tweets were: " Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1 am (rare event); Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter." Then he reported his window rattling and a bang. "I hope it's not the start of something nasty," he tweeted. Soon after there were blasts. There were two helicopters, one of them had gone down, Athar wrote.

A massive house with no telephone or internet connection led to bin Laden

A large mansion in a massive compound with 12 feet to 18 feet tall walls topped with barbed wire. No telephone or internet connection to the house. And seldom seen residents who burnt their trash rather than dispose it as other neighbors did.


These were the slender leads that eventually took US spooks and seals to the world's most wanted fugitive. Osama bin Laden lived not in a cave in some frontier mountain redoubt, but in a suburban neighborhood in a million-strong city just an hour's drive from Islamabad, right under the eyes of the Pakistani military.


No one is particularly surprised about this. In fact, going by the track record of major al-Qaida and Taliban operatives captured so far, it would seem that images of them hiding in caves are overblown. Most of them have been captured in Pakistani cities -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, Mullah Biradhar in Karachi, and other operatives in places like Faisalabad and Multan. It would seem the terrorists like their comfort -- or at least they are kept in comfort.


Details of how the US homed in on bin Laden are still sketchy, but this much is known based on what President Obama himself said and background briefings by officials.


Right from the moment he took office, Obama resolved to hunt down bin Laden, a goal that his predecessor Bush (who once suggested he did not want to personalize the bin Laden hunt) appeared to have taken his eyes off from. The new President called in the CIA chief and told him to devote whatever resources were needed to nail bin Laden, even as he shifted the focus from the war on Iraq to the Af-Pak theater.


Last August or September, the CIA team tasked with the bin Laden hunt succeeded in developing leads obtained from a Guantanamo detainee four years ago about two brothers who had acted as couriers for bin Laden. Their identity was established and then their coordinates.


Tracking then, the U.S team got to know with some degree of certainty that they were making sorties to a compound in Abbottabad, a military cantonment 60 kms north of Islamabad. The design of the compound and the mansion, and the activities surrounding it, indicated it held someone important.


Whether the US knew with certainty it was bid Laden is not clear, but between March 14 and April 28, President Obama held five national security meetings with his top aides to decide on how to approach the problem at a time ties with Pakistan were at all all-time low because of the Raymond Davis episode. The incident made it all the more dicey to employ American forces for an airborne attack, particularly given past U.S experience in Iran and Somalia, and the Pakistani military's virulent response to any suggestion of U.S ground action inside Pakistan, much less at the doors of a military cantonment.


Still, Obama gave the go-ahead for the operation over the weekend. Three or four U.S choppers carrying elite Navy Seals were deployed on Sunday night/Monday early a.m. No Pakistani personnel were involved.


The US team ran into resistance. Bin Laden was living in the compound with his eldest son and his youngest wife. The two couriers were also with him. Bin Laden was reportedly shot in the head in a firefight. Two other men and a woman also died. It's not clear if they included his son and wife.


There were other mishaps. A US chopper involved in the attack developed a malfunction at some point and crashed in the neighborhood. This was reported in the Pakistani media several hours before news of bin Laden's death emerged, with no mention of American involvement or the hunt for bin Laden. Pakistani officials had shut down the area and kept out the media on orders from the US.


Only in the morning in Pakistan, when the wreckage from the chopper (which the US reportedly destroyed) was cleared, did the story emerge that the smoldering house in the Abbotabad suburb had hosted Osama bin Laden. He has been shot and killed by US forces, who had even taken away his body from Pakistan.

Finger of suspicion at Pak military for protecting bin Laden

The finger of suspicion is pointing squarely at the Pakistani military and intelligence for sheltering and protecting Osama bin Laden before US forces hunted him down and put a bullet in his head on Sunday. The coordinates of the action and sequence of events suggest that the al-Qaida fugitive may have been killed in an ISI safehouse.


Within hours of the news of bin Laden's killing, speculation raged about Pakistan and its spy agency's role in the momentous episode. President Obama made it clear that the operation to hunt down bin Laden was conducted exclusively by US forces -- ''a small team of Americans,'' he said -- at his direction. While he thanked Pakistan's civilian government for its help, naming President Zardari in particular, he made no mention of any other active Pakistani role, especially in the operation. It was "all-American" and "Made in USA," he seemed to say.


But in a glaring counter-narrative, Pakistani security officials claimed bin Laden was nailed in a joint operation between CIA and Pakistani forces. "It was carried out on a very precise info that some high-value target is there," one Pakistani official was quoted as saying.


US analysts uniformly suggested this was clearly aimed at ducking charges of the Pakistani military's possible role in hiding bin Laden. ''This is hugely embarrassing for Pakistan,'' was a common refrain on US TV channels throughout the night.


In fact, top US officials have openly suggested for months that the Pakistani military establishment was hiding bin Laden. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came closest to publicly exposing Pakistan's role last May when she accused some government officials there of harboring Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.


''I am not saying they are at the highest level...but I believe somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Taliban are,'' Clinton said on May 10 last year, adding, ''We expect more cooperation (from Pakistan) to help us bring to justice capture or kill those who brought us 9/11.''


Taken together with President Obama's pointed 'thank you' to President Zardari and leaving out any mention of Pakistani forces' involvement, it would seem that Washington believes that Pakistan's military intelligence establishment, including the ISI, was sheltering bin Laden. The ISI was accused as recently as last week by the top US military official Admiral Mike Mullen of having terrorist links, and named as a terrorist support entity by US officials, according to the Guantanamo cables.


Lending credence to the charges is the fact that US forces homed in on bin Laden in Abbottabad, which is a cantonment just 50 kms from Islamabad, where the Pakistani military has a strong presence. The place where bin Laden was killed is only kilometers from the Kakul military academy, where many Pakistani military elites, including some of its ISI cadres, graduate from.

While US officials are tightlipped about precise details, analysts are trying to figure out whether the compound that sheltered bin Laden was an ISI safehouse. There is also speculation as to whether Hillary Clinton was referring to this when she made her pointed remarks last May.


US officials have said for years that they believed bin Laden escaped to Pakistan after the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan. But Pakistani officials, including its former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, insisted that he was in Afghanistan, even as Afghan officials would angrily refute it and say he is in Pakistan. In the end, the Americans and Afghans were right on the money.

Bin Laden was found at luxurious Pak compound with youngest wife

WASHINGTON: US forces finally found al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden not in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan's border, but in a million-dollar compound in an upscale suburb of Pakistan's capital, with his youngest wife, US officials said early on Monday.

They were led to the fortress-like three-story building after more than four years tracking one of bin Laden's most trusted couriers, whom U.S. officials said was identified by men captured after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"Detainees also identified this man as one of the few al-Qaida couriers trusted by bin Laden. They indicated he might be living with or protected by bin Laden," a senior administration official said in a briefing for reporters.

Bin Laden was finally found -- more than 9-1/2 years after the 2001 attacks on the United States -- after authorities discovered in August 2010 that the courier lived with his brother and their families in an unusual and extremely high-security building, officials said.

"When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw: an extraordinarily unique compound," a senior administration official said.

"The bottom line of our collection and our analysis was that we had high confidence that the compound harbored a high-value terrorist target. The experts who worked this issue for years assessed that there was a strong probability that the terrorist who was hiding there was Osama bin Laden," another administration official said.

The home is in Abbotabad, a town about 35 miles (60 km) north of Islamabad, that is relatively affluent and home to many retired members of Pakistan's military.

The building, about eight times the size of other nearby houses, sat on a large plot of land that was relatively secluded when it was built in 2005. When it was constructed, it was on the outskirts of Abbotabad's center, at the end of a dirt road, but some other homes have been built nearby in the six years since it went up, officials said.

WALLS TOPPED WITH BARBED WIRE Intense security measures included 12- to 18-foot (3.6 meters to 5.5 meters) outer walls topped with barbed wire and internal walls that sectioned off different parts of the compound, officials said. Two security gates restricted access, and residents burned their trash, rather than leaving it for collection as did their neighbors, officials said.

Few windows of the three-story home faced the outside of the compound, and a terrace had a seven-foot (2.1 meter) privacy wall, officials said.

"It is also noteworthy that the property is valued at approximately $1 million but has no telephone or Internet service connected to it," an administration official said. "The brothers had no explainable source of wealth."

US analysts realized that a third family lived there in addition to the two brothers, and the age and makeup of the third family matched those of the relatives -- including his youngest wife -- they believed would be living with bin Laden.

"Everything we saw, the extremely elaborate operational security, the brothers' background and their behavior and the location of the compound itself was perfectly consistent with what our experts expected bin Laden's hide-out to look like," another Obama administration official said.

A small US team conducted a helicopter raid on the compound on Sunday afternoon, officials said. After 40 minutes of fighting, bin Laden and an adult son, one unidentified woman and two men -- identified as the courier and his brother -- were dead, officials said, and Obama was preparing a television address to the nation.

Abbotabad is a popular summer resort, located in a valley surrounded by green hills near Pakistani Kashmir. Islamist militants, particularly those fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir, used to have training camps near the town.

NIGHT RAID : That Killed OSAMA

PAKISTAN: Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was hiding out in a mansion near a Pakistani military training academy and less than two hours' drive from Islamabad when he was killed in a dramatic CIA-led operation involving helicopters and ground troops on Sunday night.

The revelations that bin Laden was sheltering inside Pakistan is likely to ratchet up pressure on Islamabad.
The country's arch-rival, India, was quick to comment, saying the news underlined its "concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan".

A Reuter's photographer in the valley town of Abbotabad north of Islamabad said police had blocked the road leading to the area where the night-time raid at a huge compound took place.

"After midnight, a large number of commandos encircled the compound. Three helicopters were hovering overhead. All of a sudden there was firing towards the helicopters from the ground," said Nasir Khan, a resident of the town.

"There was intense firing and then I saw one of the helicopters falling down," said Khan, who had watched the dramatic scene unfold from his rooftop.

Senior Pakistani security officials said the operation, carried out at around 1:30 a.m., involved both helicopters and ground troops.

A Pakistani military helicopter crashed near Abbotabad on Sunday night, killing one and wounding two, according to local media. It was unclear if the crash was related to bin Laden's death, but witnesses reported gunshots and heavy firing before one of two low-flying helicopters crashed near the military academy.

Express 24/7 television showed an image of what it said was bin Laden shot in the head, his mouth pulled back in a grimace.

Pakistan Faces Awkward Questions

Bin Laden was the mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people and put the United States on a decade-long war footing.

The fact bin Laden was apparently living in relative luxury not far from Islamabad could pose awkward questions for Pakistan.

Just 10 days ago Pakistan's army chief addressed army cadets at the academy near where bin Laden was killed, saying the country's military had broken the back of militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"For some time there will be a lot of tension between Washington and Islamabad because bin Laden seems to have been living here close to Islamabad," said Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst.

"If the ISI had known then somebody within the ISI must have leaked this information," Gul said, referring to the Pakistani intelligence agency. "Pakistan will have to do a lot of damage control because the Americans have been reporting he is in Pakistan ... this is a serious blow to the credibility of Pakistan."

However, defence analyst and former general Talat Masood said the fact bin Laden was killed in a joint operation would limit the damage to Pakistan's image "There should be a sigh of relief because this will take some pressure off of Pakistan," said defence analyst and former general Talat Masood. "Pakistan most probably has contributed to this, and Pakistan can take some credit for this -- being such an iconic figure, it's a great achievement."

Abbotabad is a popular summer resort, located in a valley surrounded by green hills near Pakistani Kashmir. Islamist militants, particularly those fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir, used to have training camps near the town.

OSAMA BIN LADEN Killed In Shootout, OBAMA Says

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama said on Sunday. "Justice has been done," Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11 , 2001 , attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3 ,000 people. It is was major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012. And it was at least a huge symbolic blow to al Qaeda, the militant organization that has staged bloody attacks in many western and Arab countries cities and has been the subject of a worldwide campaign against it. Obama said U.S. forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in Abbotabad north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said. In Washington, thousands of people gathered quickly outside the White House, waving American flags, cheering and chanting "USA, USA, USA." Car drivers blew their horns in celebration and people streamed to Lafayette Park across from the presidential mansion. Police vehicles with their lights flashing stood vigil. "I'm down here to witness the history. My boyfriend is commissioning as a Marine next week. So I'm really proud of the troops," Laura Vogler, a junior at American University in Washington, said outside the White House. Many Americans had given up hope of ever finding bin Laden after he vanished in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan in late 2001 as U.S. and allied forces invaded the country in response to the September 11 attacks. Intelligence that originated last August provided the clues that eventually led to bin Laden's trail, the president said. A U.S. official said Obama gave the final order to pursue the operation last Friday morning. "The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children," Obama said. A crowd gathered in Lafayette Park outside the White House erupted in jubilation at the news. Hundreds of people waved flags, hugged and cheered. CAPTURED DEAD Former President George W. Bush, who famously vowed to bring bin Laden to justice "dead or alive" but never did, called the operation a " momentous achievement" after Obama called him with the news. Martin Indyk, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, described bin Laden's death as "a body blow" to al Qaeda at a time when its ideology was already being undercut by the popular revolutions in the Arab world. Statements of appreciation poured in from both sides of Washington's often divided political divide. Republican Senator John McCain declared, "I am overjoyed that we finally got the world's top terrorist. " Said former President Bill Clinton: " I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al Qaeda attacks." Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead. Bin Laden had been hunted since he eluded U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan close to the Pakistan frontier in 2001. The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan. While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway. Besides September 11 , Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks -- including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen .