CIA Discovered Bin Laden’s Location 10 Months before Killing Him

Osama bin Laden at a news conference in Khost, Afghanistan, in a 1998 file photo released on March 19, 2004. (AP)
Osama bin Laden at a news conference in Khost, Afghanistan, in a 1998 file photo released on March 19, 2004. (AP)
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CIA Discovered Bin Laden’s Location 10 Months before Killing Him

Osama bin Laden at a news conference in Khost, Afghanistan, in a 1998 file photo released on March 19, 2004. (AP)
Osama bin Laden at a news conference in Khost, Afghanistan, in a 1998 file photo released on March 19, 2004. (AP)

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is celebrating the 9th anniversary of the raid on a compound in Pakistan that led to the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May, 2011.

The operation dubbed "Geronimo" took ten months of preparation. Former US President Barack Obama ordered the execution on April 29, 2011 and it was carried out four days later by the Navy SEALs on May 2.

Bin Laden was hiding in a residential compound with his two wives and assistants, in the northwest of Abbottabad, according to the CIA.

On September 26, 2001, the first CIA force entered Afghanistan, 15 days after September 11 attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people and al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for. By November, there was a total of 100 CIA officers and 300 from the United States Army Special Forces in Afghanistan.

Under the CIA leadership and with the support of partners from the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the US agencies were collecting data on bin Laden’s whereabouts. Intelligence information managed to find out where he was hiding, protected by two of his closest assistants.

The raid meant to target his location with the least risk of civilians getting killed. His death marked a significant victory in the US-led campaign to fight terrorism around the world and to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida.

Previously published reports revealed that the CIA had followed him from the time he fled to the Tora Bora in Afghanistan and until disclosing the identity of his courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti along with the four-wheel drive in 2010 in Peshawar.

In its zeal to identify bin Laden or his family, the CIA used a sham hepatitis B vaccination project to collect DNA in the neighborhood where he was hiding. The US intelligence plan was to obtain a blood sample from one of the children living in the Abbottabad compound, so that DNA tests could determine whether or not they were relatives of him.

The Pakistani authorities, therefore, arrested doctor Shakil Afridi who remain behind bars until today. Afridi was the top medic in Khyber tribal district and as head of health services had overseen a number of US-funded vaccination programs.

It's thought that one of Dr Afridi's staff visited the compound and collected blood - but it's not known whether this proved central to the Americans' success in locating their target.

In January 2012, US officials publicly admitted that Afridi had worked for US intelligence. But it's far from clear how much he knew about his role for the CIA. He said nothing to this effect during his deposition at the Abbottabad Commission into the killing.



Israel Says Campaign on Iran to Intensify as Tehran Pledges 'Destructive' Attacks

A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Israel Says Campaign on Iran to Intensify as Tehran Pledges 'Destructive' Attacks

A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Israel pounded Iran for a second day on Saturday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its campaign would intensify, while Tehran stated that "heavy and destructive" attacks by Iran against Israel were expected within the coming hours.

Netanyahu said Israel's strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program possibly by years and rejected international calls for restraint.

"We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs' regime, and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days," he said in a video message.

In Tehran, Iranian authorities said around 60 people, including 29 children, were killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets.

Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Friday night, killing at least three people in Israel. Air raid sirens sent Israelis into shelters as waves of missiles streaked across the sky and interceptors rose to meet them.

In the first apparent attack to hit Iran's energy infrastructure, Iranian media reported a fire on Saturday after Israel bombed the South Pars gas field in southern Bushehr province. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said some gas production there was suspended following the attack.

"If (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day and scores more on the second.

A military official on Saturday said Israel had caused significant damage to Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, but had not so far taken on another uranium enrichment site, Fordow, dug into a mountain.

The official said Israel had "eliminated the highest commanders of their military leadership" and had killed nine nuclear scientists who were "main sources of knowledge, main forces driving forward the (nuclear) program.”

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press revealed some of the damage sustained by Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal in an Israeli attack on the country.

Images from Planet Labs PBC taken Friday showed damage at two missile bases, one in Kermanshah and one in Tabriz, both in western Iran.