The United States has released some details on how they managed to nail nail down and locate Bin laden, a man who had eluded them for more than 10 years despite being the most wanted man.

According to an official US State Department statement, it all begun when US intelligence managed to locate Bin Laden’s trusted aide, after they monitored a call he made to another suspect the US had been monitoring.
The courier, in turn, led US intelligence to a walled compound in north-east Pakistan, where a team of Navy SEALs shot bin Laden to death.
Inside the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) team hunting bin Laden, it was clear that bin Laden’s vulnerability was his couriers.
He was too smart to let al-Qaeda foot soldiers, or even his senior commanders, know his hideout.
If he wanted to get his messages out, someone he trusted had to carry them.

Man in the news Bin Laden

After interrogating a number of captured al-Qaeda leaders, the CIA established that Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti was bin Laden’s trusted courier.

CIA, therefore, concluded that if they found al-Kuwaiti, they could find bin Laden.

It took years of work before the CIA identified the courier’s real name: Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait. When they identified him, he was nowhere to be found and CIA sources did not know where he was hiding.
Bin Laden was insistent that no phones or computers be used near him.

So the eavesdroppers at the National Security Agency kept coming up cold.

Ahmed was identified by detainees as a mid-level operative who helped al-Qaeda members and their families find safe havens.

But his whereabouts were a mystery to US intelligence that, according to Guantanamo Bay documents, one detainee said Ahmed was wounded while fleeing US forces during the invasion of Afghanistan and later died in the arms of the detainee. But mid last year, Ahmed had a telephone conversation with someone monitored by US intelligence, according to an American official.

Ahmed was located somewhere away from bin Laden’s hideout when he had the discussion, but it was enough to help intelligence officials locate and watch Ahmed.

In August 2010, Ahmed unknowingly led authorities to a compound in the north-east Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

Intelligence officials had known about the house for years, but they always suspected that bin Laden would be surrounded by heavily armed security guards.

Nobody patrolled the compound in Abbottabad.

Nobody came or went out and no telephone or Internet lines ran from the compound.
The CIA soon believed that bin Laden was hiding in plain sight, in a hideout, specially built to go unnoticed.

By mid-February, the officials were convinced a “high-value target” was hiding in the compound.

John Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, said Monday:
“I was confident we had the basis to take action.”

Obama tapped two dozen members of the navy’s elite SEAL Team Six to carry out a raid with surgical accuracy.

Before dawn on Monday morning, two helicopters left Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. They entered Pakistani airspace using sophisticated technology intended to evade that country’s radar systems, a US official said.

The helicopters lowered into the compound, dropping the SEALs behind the walls. No shots were fired, but shortly after the team hit the ground, one of the helicopters came crashing down and rolled onto its side. None of the SEALs was injured and the mission continued uninterrupted.

The SEALs secured the rest of the property first, then proceeded to the room where bin Laden was hiding. A firefight ensued, Brennan said.

The courier, Ahmed and his brother were killed, officials said.

Then, the SEALs killed bin Laden with a bullet just above his left eye, blowing off part of his skull, another official said.
Using the call sign for his visual identification, one of the soldiers communicated that “Geronimo” had been killed in action, according to a US official. Bin Laden’s body was immediately identifiable.

DNA testing, a photo analysis by the CIA, confirmation on site by a woman believed to be bin Laden’s wife, who was wounded, and matching physical features such as bin Laden’s height, all helped confirm the identification.

US forces searched the compound and flew away with documents, hard drives and DVDs that could provide valuable intelligence about al-Qaeda, a US official said.

Bin Laden’s body was flown to the USS Carl Vinson in the North Arabian sea.

There, aboard a US warship, officials conducted a traditional Islamic burial ritual.

Bin Laden’s body was washed and placed in a white sheet. He was placed in a weighted bag that, after religious remarks by a military officer, was slipped into the sea.

The US is reportedly considering releasing more photos and probably video of the operation to remove some current doubts over whether Bin laden died from the US attack.

Uganda President Barrack Obama and his anti terrorism team watched the whole operation on video from the white House until it was concluded, meaning the US has full videos of the whole operation to kill Bin laden.