Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, was killed in Pakistan on Sunday in an operation ordered by President Barack Obama.
Obama delivered an address late Sunday evening in which he said he ordered the operation today. U.S. forces then took action, and, “after a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body,” he said.
The operation was the culmination of what Obama said were “months” of intelligence work, but said that bin Laden had been “the top priority of our war against al-Qaida” since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
“Last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action,” he said.
Obama said no Americans were harmed in the operation.
Even before Obama delivered his address from the White House Sunday evening, news agencies around the world were reporting that the al-Qaida leader had been killed.
According to The Associated Press, a senior Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. An American stated that bin Laden was killed in a mansion close to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
— Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.