Overview
- Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette has gone public with a detailed account of the May 2011 operation, saying he fired on Osama bin Laden and later found hair dye in the bathroom.
- He describes lasting neck and shoulder injuries from the mission that required multiple surgeries, highlighting the human cost for those who carried it out.
- The CIA traced a trusted courier beginning in 2007 and, by late 2010, identified the Abbottabad compound where analysts believed bin Laden lived.
- The raid team flew in from Afghanistan, shifted to a ground entry after a helicopter tail struck a wall, killed bin Laden on the third floor, and withdrew before Pakistani forces reached the site.
- U.S. officials buried bin Laden at sea within 12 hours, and analysts say the mission showcased precise intelligence and special-operations integration while leaving unresolved questions about Pakistani sovereignty and the wider war on terror.