Thaindian News

Washington, May 3 (IANS) When US commandos found Osama bin Laden in the house in Abbottabad in Pakistan, he was wearing a “shalwar kameez” or what is known as a Pathan suit, and he resisted before he was shot above the left eye, the New York Times reported.

Osama was shot dead near the end of the 40-minute raid on the third floor of the house in Abbottabad Sunday night.

The American government gave few details about his final moments.

“Whether or not he got off any rounds, I frankly don’t know,” said John O. Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism chief. But a senior Pentagon official, briefing on the condition of anonymity, said it was clear Osama “was killed by US bullets”, the daily reported.

In Pakistan, it was just past midnight on Monday morning, and the Americans were counting on the element of surprise.

As the first of the helicopters swooped in at low altitudes, people in the neighbourhood heard a loud blast and gunshots. A woman who lives two miles away said she thought it was a terrorist attack on a Pakistani military installation. Her husband said no one had any clue Osama was hiding in the quiet, affluent area.

When the Navy SEAL team stormed into the compound - the raid awakened the group inside, and a firefight broke out, a American intelligence official said. One man held an unidentified woman living there as a shield while firing at the Americans. Both were killed. Two more men died as well, and two women were wounded.

American authorities later determined that one of the slain men was Osama’s son, Hamza, and the other two were the courier and his brother.