U.S. commandos knew Osama bin Laden likely would die

President Barack Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L), along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Also pictured are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (R). Please note: A classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured at source. REUTERS/White House/Pete Souza/Handout

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. special forces set out  to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea to make it  harder for the al Qaeda founder to become a martyr, U.S.  national security officials told Reuters on Monday.
“This was a kill operation,” one of the officials said.
“If he had waved a white flag of surrender, he would have  been taken alive,” the official added. But the operating  assumption among the U.S. raiders was that bin Laden would put  up a fight — which he did.
Bin Laden “participated” in a firefight between the U.S.  commandos and residents of the fortified compound near the  Pakistani capital Islamabad where he had been hiding, the  official said.
The official would not explicitly say whether bin Laden  fired on the Americans, but confirmed that during the course of  the 40-minute operation the U.S. team shot bin Laden in the  head.
Three other men and a woman lay dead after the raid, but no  Americans were killed. John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s  top counterterrorism adviser, said U.S. officials believed the  woman was one of bin Laden’s wives and that he had used her as  a human shield.

President Barack Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L), along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Also pictured are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (R). Please note: A classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured at source. REUTERS/White House/Pete Souza/Handout
President Barack Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L), along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Also pictured are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (R). Please note: A classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured at source. REUTERS/White House/Pete Souza/Handout

Brennan said the commandos were prepared to capture bin  Laden alive, but they knew that was a remote possibility.
“If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he  didn’t present any threat, the individuals involved were able  and prepared to do that,” Brennan told reporters.
“The concern was that bin Laden would oppose any type of  capture operation. Indeed, he did. It was a firefight. He,  therefore, was killed in that firefight, and that’s when the  remains were removed.”
The operation was carried out by a team of about 15 special  forces operatives — most, if not all, U.S. Navy SEALs,  according to U.S. officials familiar with the details. They  indicated the team was based in Afghanistan.
One official said it included forensic specialists whose  job was to collect evidence proving that bin Laden was caught  in the raid and intelligence that might be useful in tracking  down other al Qaeda leaders or foiling ongoing plots.
Within hours of bin Laden’s death, which Obama announced in  a dramatic, late-night White House speech, the commandos had  buried bin Laden’s body at sea, two U.S. officials said.
It was done so that bin Laden’s body would not become a  symbol of veneration or inspiration for would-be militants,  U.S. officials said.
“You wouldn’t want to leave him so that his body could  become a shrine,” one of the officials said.
CIA WAS CONFIDENT
U.S. officials said the key information that eventually led  to bin Laden’s trail came from questioning of militants  detained by U.S. forces following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on  New York and Washington.
Captured militants, including some held at the U.S.  military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, told intelligence  officials of a particular al Qaeda “courier” whom they had  heard was close to bin Laden.
They also mentioned two captured al Qaeda operations  chiefs, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, widely believed to  have masterminded the attacks.
Initially U.S. intelligence did not know either the name or  whereabouts of the courier. But officials said that about four  years ago, U.S. agencies learned the individual’s name.
Two years ago, U.S. intelligence received credible  information indicating that the courier and his brother,  another suspected militant operative, were operating somewhere  near Islamabad.
Then, in August 2010, the U.S. pinpointed the compound in  Abbottabad where intelligence indicated the two brothers, their  families, and a third large family were living.
It was located in a ritzy neighborhood at the end of a dirt  road, not far from one of Pakistan’s principal military  academies. Residents of the area included retired Pakistani  military officers.
Working with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency  (NGA), which analyzes pictures from spy satellites and  aircraft, and the National Security Agency, which conducts  electronic eavesdropping, the CIA concluded that the compound  was built with unusual security features — including  high-walls topped with barbed-wire — and that its inhabitants  appeared to take unusual security precautions.
By earlier this year, the CIA believed that it had “high  confidence” that a “high-value” al Qaeda target was at the  Abbottabad compound, and a strong probability that this target  was bin Laden.
But one official said the agency was never “100 percent  certain” that bin Laden was the one who was hiding out.