Washington: A former commander of US Navy SEAL, which had carried out the Osama operation, has claimed that the al Qaeda leader was shot dead within 90 seconds of the raid beginning rather than killed in a 45-minute firefight, as earlier claimed.
Chuck Pfarrer contradicted the official account of how the SEAL team landed and how one of their Black Hawk helicopters crashed.
"Bin Laden was dead within 90 seconds of the beginning of the raid, not after an extended firefight," The Telegraph quoted Pfarrer, as saying in a statement.
"Four suppressed rounds were fired," he said, adding: "The SEALs entered the building after being deposited on the roof by the lead helicopter, not from the ground."
"Only minutes after bin Laden was dead did the lead helicopter, heading for a landing spot, lose altitude and sink, tail-first, into the large walled enclosure east of the main house." Pfarrer explains that if the SEALs had been forced to climb stairs to reach bin Laden, as has been officially claimed, he would have had enough warning to arm and effectively defend himself.
The Saudi-born terrorist, accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001, was at the top of the US “most wanted” list.
Osama was finally killed on May 02 in his Abbottabad hideout in Pakistan.
ANI
First Published: Friday, November 04, 2011, 13:38