{"id":62874,"date":"2014-11-07T08:18:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T08:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=62874"},"modified":"2014-11-07T08:18:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T08:18:24","slug":"us-row-shot-osama-bin-laden-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=62874","title":{"rendered":"US row over who shot Osama Bin Laden"},"content":{"rendered":"

A public row has arisen over which US commando fired the shot that killed Osama Bin Laden, more than three years after the al-Qaeda leader’s death.<\/p>\n

Ex-Navy Seal Robert O’Neill, 38, has told the Washington Post in an interview that he fired the fatal shot.<\/p>\n

This contradicts the account of Matt Bissonnette, another former Seal involved in the raid, in a 2012 book.<\/p>\n

The al-Qaeda leader was killed in a 2011 Navy Seal raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Navy Seals usually abide by a code of silence that forbids them from publicly taking credit for their actions.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Neill, who retired in 2012, had previously told his story anonymously to Esquire magazine.<\/p>\n

He was scheduled to reveal his identity in a television interview later this month, but news of the interview angered other former Seals.<\/p>\n

A website run by ex-special forces personnel published his name pre-emptively, apparently in protest at his decision to claim credit for the shooting.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Neill said he and another member of the team – whose identity remains secret – climbed the stairs to the third floor of the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and saw Bin Laden poke his head outside the door of one of the rooms.<\/p>\n

\"US<\/div>\n
President Obama and his national security team monitored the raid on Bin Laden’s compound<\/div>\n
\"Compound<\/div>\n
US Navy Seals killed Bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan in May 2011<\/div>\n

The unnamed commando, at the “point position” leading the column, fired at him but missed, according to Mr O’Neill.<\/p>\n

An instant later, Mr O’Neill went into the room and killed the al-Qaeda leader with shots to the head, he says.<\/p>\n

\"Grey<\/div>\n

Seal Team 6 (ST6)<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Elite group of US Navy’s Sea, Air, Land (Seal) Teams trained to carry out top secret operations<\/li>\n
  • Part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru) based in Virginia<\/li>\n
  • Led the 2009 rescue of US Captain Richard Phillips, kidnapped by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean<\/li>\n
  • In 2012, several ST6 members were disciplined for working as paid consultants on a video game<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \"Grey<\/div>\n

    However, in the book No Easy Day, Mr Bissonnette claimed it was the point man who killed Bin Laden.<\/p>\n

    On Thursday, Mr Bissonnette did not directly dispute Mr O’Neill’s claim, in an interview with NBC News.<\/p>\n

    “Two different people telling two different stories for two different reasons,” Mr Bissonnette told the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

    “Whatever he says, he says. I don’t want to touch that.”<\/p>\n

    Mr Bissonnette is scheduled to appear on the CBS news magazine programme 60 Minutes ahead of the publication of his second book, No Hero, about his service with the Seals.<\/p>\n

    \"Osama<\/div>\n
    In 2004, Bin Laden took credit for the al-Qaeda attacks on the US<\/div>\n

    Meanwhile, he is under investigation for potentially disclosing classified information in his first book, which is about the Bin Laden raid.<\/p>\n

    The official account of what happened is unlikely to be disclosed by the US government for many years.<\/p>\n

    Pentagon officials have neither confirmed nor denied Mr O’Neill’s account, but senior special operations leaders sent a letter last week to all Navy Seals urging them to comply with their code of silence about operational details, including avoiding taking “public credit”.<\/p>\n

    “We do not abide wilful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety and financial gain,” they wrote.<\/p>\n

    Bin Laden was confirmed killed in the raid and his body was buried at sea.<\/p>\n

    Darkness and close quarters inside the compound have made some Navy Seals question whether it is possible to determine whose bullets killed the al-Qaeda leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A public row has arisen over which US commando fired the shot that killed Osama Bin Laden, more than three years after the al-Qaeda leader’s death. Ex-Navy Seal Robert O’Neill, 38, has told the Washington Post in an interview that he fired the fatal shot. This contradicts the account of Matt Bissonnette, another former Seal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":62875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-62874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}