Osama Bin Laden Is Dead; U.S. Has His Body
Osama bin Laden is dead and his body is in the possession of the United States.
A number of U.S. media outlets reported the death of the terrorist late Sunday night, subsequent to a notice that President Obama was to deliver a major announcement from the White House.
“I can confirm to the world that the United States conducted a mission that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden,” Obama said at about 11:30 pm U.S. eastern time.
Obama said bin Laden was killed Sunday after a months-long operation, in a firefight in Abbottabad, in northeastern Pakistan.
Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, did not cite Israel as a motive when he first emerged in the 1990s, but in the last decade, he began to routinely cite U.S. support for the Jewish state as a grievance.
Affiliates of the al-Qaida terrorist movement he founded have emerged in recent years in the Gaza Strip.
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