On May 1, 2011, when people around the world were immersed in the joy of the festival, the CIA suddenly released the news that on this day, the US Navy SEALs had killed al-Qaida leader Bin Laden on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
(News of bin Laden's death)
As soon as this news was announced, it immediately caused a sensation around the world, and could not help but remind everyone of "911" again.
It can be said that "911" was the most serious terrorist attack in the history of the United States, causing nearly 3,000 deaths and direct economic losses of 200 billion US dollars.
The number one suspect in that terrorist attack was al-Qaida leader bin Laden. Since 2001, the United States has listed him as the most wanted man, and after 9 years of hard pursuit, he was finally killed.
For a long time, due to the secrecy of the US military, little was known about the details of bin Laden's killing. Until May 25, 2017, six years after bin Laden was killed, his wife Amal announced to the outside world that bin Laden was shot by the US military on the night, which once again aroused widespread concern in the international community.
So what really happened on the night bin Laden was killed? What little-known details did his wife reveal in her 2017 response?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" ></h1>
During the Cold War, the world's two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, competed in various aspects. In order to compete with the United States for world hegemony, the Soviet Union began to implement Brezhnev's global strategy.
(Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and the friendly and good-neighborly relations between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan were broken. Supported by strong military strength, the Soviet army broke through the situation, defeated the Afghan army, and soon occupied the main cities and military bases in Afghanistan.
However, the various forces in Afghanistan did not compromise on this, and in the face of the shame of national subjugation, many jihadist groups began to carry out guerrilla warfare and constantly harassed the Soviet garrison, which made the Soviet army extremely angry.
Among these jihadist groups, there was a young man who was particularly special because he was not Afghan, and although the Soviet invasion had nothing to do with him, he was very keen to participate in the armed rebellion launched by the jihadist group.
He is bin Laden.
Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, when it comes to this country, the first word that many people think of is wealth, and bin Laden was born in a family with strong financial resources in the country - the Bin Laden family, which is rumored to be second only to the Saudi royal family, which shows its strength.
It can be said that bin Laden was born with a golden key, so when he grew up, he naturally entered the world's most luxurious university, King Abdullah University.
According to such a life trajectory, if there is no accident, bin Laden's path is much simpler: inherit the family property after graduating from a prestigious school, take over the family business, and become a "rich and idle person".
However, bin Laden, who came from a wealthy family, did not end up on this seemingly "ordinary" path.
It turned out that bin Laden had met two life mentors during his university years, both of whom were Islamic scholars and accomplished, and whose study of the islamic classics, the Qur'an, and the Sunnah, had reached the pinnacle of perfection.
Under the guidance of these two Islamic scholars, bin Laden gradually became addicted to the study of quran doctrine and jihadist doctrine, and his ideas became radical and extreme. But faith has always been a double-edged sword. It can make people motivated and energetic, and they can work tirelessly for a goal; it can also make people dominated by evil desires, immersing them in a self-centered world, and eventually leading to destruction, which bin Laden is obviously the latter.
(Jihadist Group)
In the end, under the influence of jihad theory, during the Soviet-Afghan war, bin Laden, who had already gone crazy, left his homeland Saudi Arabia and went to Afghanistan alone to join the so-called "jihadist organization".
At that time, as the biggest rival of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, in order to balance the Soviet Union and expand its own power, the United States began to secretly support jihadist organizations in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War, in addition to providing them with weapons and equipment, and even training military personnel for them.
In this way, bin Laden and the United States temporarily formed an alliance due to their interests. With the financial support of the United States, after 9 years of hard fighting, the Soviet army, which had been repeatedly damaged, began to withdraw from Afghanistan.
(Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan)
Thus, the victorious bin Laden returned home with great joy. At that time, because the United States had "repeatedly won" on the battlefield in Afghanistan, it was also proud in its heart, thinking that cooperation with the jihadist organization was very pleasant, and it was not known that the tigers they raised at this time would give themselves a fierce bite decades later!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > Second, Americans are also pagans</h1>
In August 1990, after the oil negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait failed, Iraq decided to send troops to Kuwait in an attempt to make it its 19th province.
As a neighbor of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia is well aware of the cold truth, and feeling threatened, it began to seek the help of the United States, intending to use the strong military strength of the United States to resist the menacing Iraq.
(Iraq's invasion of Kuwait)
In order to realize its own "Middle East strategy," the Bush administration decided to carry out the "Desert Shield" program and sent a large number of military planes to transport US troops to Saudi Arabia. However, for the arrival of the US military, bin Laden expressed strong opposition, so the Saudi government, which was embarrassed and angry, expelled him and fled to Sudan alone.
It is said that his country is facing danger, and it is a good thing to have strong reinforcements to save it, but why did bin Laden express strong opposition to the United States sending troops to Saudi Arabia? Originally, the Quran states that non-Muslims are not allowed to set foot in Islamic areas. Therefore, in bin Laden's view, this long drive of the United States is actually a kind of infidel invasion.
Sure enough, the alliance of interests was unusually loose, and the "friendship" boat flipped over. Since then, bin Laden has turned against the United States, and bin Laden's goal has become how to overthrow the United States.
However, the goal is beautiful, but it may not be achieved! After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States became the only superpower in the world. Although bin Laden also has a vote of little brothers, it is not worth mentioning in the face of a powerful United States.
(Bin Laden)
Therefore, bin Laden believes that launching a frontal war at this time is a very irrational act. Not starting a war doesn't necessarily mean he's going to make America feel better. So, in retaliation for the United States, he planned a series of terrorist attacks.
Therefore, since 1993, the United States has been continuously attacked by violent terrorists. The more famous ones during this period were the "U.S. World Trade Center Bombing" in 1993 and the "Bombing of the U.S. Embassy in East Africa" in 1998.
(East African U.S. Embassy Bombing)
The completion of these major cases not only caused the United States to suffer heavy losses, but more importantly, it lost face in front of the international community. As a result, the embarrassed and angry Americans began to look for bin Laden all over the world like crazy, just so that they could kill him with their own hands to solve the hatred in their hearts!
However, after a search, the Americans found that things did not seem to be as simple as they thought, because they could not find bin Laden!
So, where is bin Laden? It turned out that bin Laden fled to Sudan after being deported by the Saudi government, and soon after, Sudan also drove him away, and the desperate bin Laden had to return to the place where he had fought, Afghanistan.
After returning to Afghanistan, bin Laden continued to develop anti-American forces, and finally fought with the Taliban, the indigenous people of the area. In order to support bin Laden's anti-American cause, the Taliban not only provided him with strong assistance, but also gave him a lot of shelter.
In order to be able to hand blade bin Laden, the United States has strongly demanded that the Taliban hand him over. But the Taliban did not take it seriously, and the momentarily irritated Americans turned their guns again and included the Taliban in their own firepower!
(Member of the Taliban Organization)
Therefore, under the strong artillery fire of the US army, the Taliban, who were vulnerable, had to turn to the mountains to carry out mobile and flexible guerrilla warfare.
In this way, every time the United States and Tajiki encountered, although the Taliban was quickly defeated, they could not die.
Moreover, because bin Laden was trained by the US military and also experienced the baptism of the Soviet-Afghan War, his "tactical quality" was very high, and every time he fought, he could not fight and ran. So, not only could the Americans find bin Laden's figure, they didn't even know if he was alive or not.
And bin Laden? In order to avoid the tracking of advanced instruments in the United States, you can only hide in the deep mountains and old forests every day and live a "primitive life"! But even this could not shake his "determination to fight jihad" in the slightest!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > third, the appearance of key people</h1>
In order to find bin Laden, the Americans can be described as tireless. But for the first seven years, the U.S. government had no clues about bin Laden, until the appearance of a single person, which made the search take a turn for the better.
In July 2010, CIA intelligence officers locked the car of bin Laden's courier inside Pakistan and installed a location tracker on his car in an attempt to rely on it to obtain the exact location of bin Laden.
Because the messenger was responsible for the communication between "leaders" and his "friends" around the world in Al-Qaida, his identity and whereabouts have always been a mystery. For the success of the "decapitation" operation, it took american intelligence agents four years to determine his real name, and it wasn't until 2010 that the CIA began tracking him.
(Outside Islamabad)
On this day, the messenger drove his car to a small village on the outskirts of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Later, according to the repeated determination of US intelligence personnel, it was finally determined that bin Laden was here. As a result, bin Laden's hiding place was finally found by the Americans.
For Americans at this time, of course, the heart is excited. But they all know that bin Laden is not an idle person, how can they ensure that this beast is killed without fail?
In the month that followed, senior officials, including the Department of Defense and the C.I.A., developed three possible options. The first was a special forces attack with helicopter gunships, and the second was the use of B-2 bombers to bomb bin Laden's hideout. The third is the joint operation between the US military and the Pakistani army.
Soon, all three options were presented to Obama in the White House. Over the next month or so, Obama convened six national meetings to discuss options for military action against bin Laden.
However, after many rounds of discussion, a solution that satisfies all parties has not yet come up with. Some people believe that the US military should inform the Pakistani side in advance if it acts alone, because some security advisers are worried that if the US side directly takes military action in Pakistan, it may cause dissatisfaction from the Pakistani side and trigger a conflict.
(Gates)
At this point, Defense Secretary Gates said: Then use B-2 bombers to bomb bin Laden's residence, but immediately some people questioned: after the bombing, there will only be a large pit, so it is impossible to find bin Laden's body, so it is impossible to determine whether bin Laden was killed.
Eventually, after a heated debate, Obama decided to strike in conjunction with helicopter gunships and special forces. In order to improve the success rate of the operation, Obama added two more helicopters to the original plan.
In order to be foolproof, the military ordered the SEALs on this mission to conduct actual combat training at training bases on the east and west coasts.
in Panetta
On April 28, the parties gathered again in the White House. CIA leader Panetta confirmed that no one had been out of the building where bin Laden lived. As a result, it was thought that Obama should have ordered the attack plan.
But at this time, some people reminded: if bin Laden cannot be put to death, how to deal with it and let him escape? Obama said: I'll think about it when I go back.
ultimately. After more than a dozen hours of deliberation, Obama said, "It's time to go." So he set the earliest time for the attack to be carried out on April 30, but it was reminded that the weather conditions at that time were not conducive to the attack, and meteorological data showed that May 1 was more appropriate.
On the night of April 30, Obama called Lieutenant General Mark Raven, commander of the Special Operations Command, and ordered the operation to proceed as planned. The next day, the atmosphere in the White House was tense, and all senior CIA and military officials gathered in the situation study room, and no one was allowed to leave.
(Obama inside the White House)
It wasn't until two o'clock in the afternoon that C.I.A. Panetta, through a video, told everyone gathered in the situation study room one last concrete plan of action. Subsequently, Panetta reported to Obama: "They [the SEALs] have crossed the border into Pakistan. ”
Obama, who heard the news, looked solemn for a moment, and the whole White House was unusually quiet...
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > fourth, bin Laden was killed in a gun resistance</h1>
At noon on May 1, dozens of SEALs, in four helicopter gunships, flew from a U.S. military base in Afghanistan to Islamabad, pakistan' capital.
(U.S. Military Base, Afghanistan)
In order to avoid conflict with the Pakistani military, the commandos were extremely careful. At about one o'clock, the helicopter landed near bin Laden's residence, and the special forces jumped off the plane one after another, and the operation officially began. However, to everyone's deep surprise, one of the four planes fell directly into bin Laden's courtyard wall due to a sudden mechanical failure, causing a lot of movement.
At this time, everyone who was in the White House situation research room to watch the live video was in a cold sweat, and they were very worried that the attack would turn into "Black Hawk Down". But at this critical moment, the third aircraft came to the rescue, so the commandos slid down the rope to the ground, fell through the courtyard wall, and also joined the attack.
In this way, dozens of SEALs quickly rushed into bin Laden's yard, a sudden sight that caught bin Laden's guards by surprise, but they quickly reacted and began to resist with heavy weapons in hand.
In the exchange of fire, four people were killed, one of whom was the "pathfinder", bin Laden's messenger.
After clearing the courtyard of personnel, the commandos immediately entered the interior of the house through doors and windows, but in order to avoid casualties of innocent people, they did not carry out large-scale strafing.
Then they rushed to the third floor, where they found Bin Laden in pajamas. Seeing american soldiers rushing over, Bin Laden tried to resist with a machine gun in his hand, but before the gun in his hand could be fired, he was shot in the forehead by a commando and killed on the spot.
(Bin Laden photo)
At this point, CIA Director Panetta said, "'Garonimo [the U.S. code name for os-laden]' has been removed!" For a moment, there was no sound in the research room, and it was not until a moment later that Obama said, "We got him." "At this point, al-Qaida leader bin Laden was completely eliminated.
(Obama)
However, although the United States claims to have killed bin Laden, in fact, the details of bin Laden's killing are poorly known. There are even many American media reports that bin Laden was shot in the abdomen and died.
It wasn't until May 25, 2017, six years after bin Laden's death, that his youngest wife, Amal, revealed the details of his killing to the outside world through news agencies.
(Bin Laden and Amal)
According to Amal, on May 1, 2011, everything went as usual. At 11 o'clock that night, as a Muslim, bin Laden prayed as usual after dinner and went to sleep.
Due to chronic electricity shortages in many parts of Pakistan, it is often pitch black at night, even at night.
However, just after midnight, Amal, who was lying next to bin Laden, was awakened by the movement outside the building, and soon she saw a figure flashing out of the window. At this time, the alert Bin Laden was also awakened, and immediately sat up, and a moment of nervousness made his forehead constantly sweat.
"The Americans are coming!" He said with a big breath.
Soon, there was a dense sound of gunfire outside the house, and then the whole building shook with it. Bin Laden and Amal quickly climbed to the balcony, and although it was pitch black, they saw two helicopters parked in the distance, while American soldiers were already firing with security guards downstairs.
At that time, Khalid (Bin Laden's son), who was on the second floor, saw that the American army was approaching, and immediately took out his AK-47 rifle and shot at the opponent. However, because he had not fired since he was 13 years old, the U.S. army was unscathed after a strafing.
At this time, the other children were scared to the top of the building to hide, but they were still frightened by the intensive gunfire, and bin Laden's two wives, Ahmed and Siham, rushed to comfort them.
The commandos then broke through the door. In order to protect his family, bin Laden let them all go downstairs and told them, "They want me, not you." ”
However, as soon as the words fell silent, an American soldier shot and killed Bin Laden's son, Khalid. Seeing that his brother had been killed, Khalid's two sisters rushed to the American soldier in desperation, but were violently pushed away by the other side.
At this point, when a SEALs rushed into bin Laden's hiding room, Amal immediately blocked her husband's side, but unfortunately, she was shot by another SEALs and lost consciousness.
But because it didn't hurt the point, Amal soon woke up. When she opened her eyes, she saw that there were many American soldiers shooting at bin Laden, and in order to save her life, she immediately closed her eyes again and tried to slow down her breathing.
In this way, bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida who had been opposing the United States for decades, was eventually killed by the US military.
Bin Laden's killing means a lot to the United States as a whole. Because since the "911" incident, the United States has been shrouded in a cloud of terrorism, and the vast number of citizens are deeply worried about their security and situation.
After bin Laden was killed, the panicked hearts of the American people were soothed. For Obama, the killing of bin Laden also became an important political capital for his re-election the following year.
epilogue:
Terrorism is an activity against humanity, and the nations of the world deserve to unite and unite to eliminate it. Only in this way can humanity enjoy a better peace!