Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on the night of May 2, President Obama told a startled world in a Sunday night announcement from Washington.

The president said a small team of Americans conducted the operation at his direction at the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama was hiding. After a fire fight they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body. According to news agencies' reports after conducting the operation the US forces took possession of two bodies, one of bin Laden, and swiftly shifted them to a military chopper, from where they took them to Bagram air base in Afghanistan. Later when Pakistani forces reached the compound after the Americans had left, they found four bodies in the compound one was of a woman believed to be bin Laden's wife and three of men, two of whom were Pakistanis. Two women, one believed to be bin Laden's other wife, were taken into custody.

A US official said they would have taken Osama alive if he had given himself up. But he resisted during the fire fight. 'As a result the operators on the ground killed him'.

A few hours later reports started coming on US television channels that after confirmation of Osama's identity by DNA tests, his body was' buried in the sea'. But a US official said earlier that 'we are ensuring that it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition'.

Pakistan's help
A US official in Washington, speaking soon afterwards, made it clear that the US shared the intelligence with no other country including Pakistan. However, President Obama acknowledged Pakistan's help in locating Osama's hideout. The president said in his announcement that 'it is important to note that our counter terrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was a hiding. '

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also mentioned about Pakistan's help. She said in her first statement after the operation that Pakistan helped lead United States to the hide out where Osama was killed by US forces.

She also made a pointed reference to bin Laden's hostility toward Pakistan. She said 'bin Laden declared war on Pakistan few years ago, adding he was an enemy of the United States and an enemy of Pakistan'.

Pakistan's reaction
Meanwhile, in Islamabad Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani described the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, 'an operation conducted by American forces through intelligence sharing.'

He said it was in accordance with the US policy which stated that the American forces will take direct action to kill Osama bin laden, if found any where in the world.

"The killing of Osama bin Laden shows the commitment of Pakistan and the world community in the war against terrorism", the prime minister said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister House on the night of May 2. Earlier top civilian and military officials of Pakistan met under the chairmanship of President Asif Ali Zardari. The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Gilani and Chief of Pakistan's Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as well as senior Foreign Office and intelligence agencies' chiefs.

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