On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden’s wife, Amal, was in his grasp when U.S. Navy SEALs burst into their compound and killed the al Qaeda leader, splattering his blood and brains across the room. Years later, she revealed the final words he spoke before U.S. forces stormed the room.
In the early hours of May 2, 2011, explosions blasted through Osama bin Laden’s heavily fortified compound, jolting family members awake. Maryam, 20, rushed upstairs to her father’s bedroom, where he was bunkered down with Amal, his fourth and youngest wife.
Bin Laden’s violent campaign against the United States and its allies was nearing its final moments as Navy SEALs stormed the compound where the al Qaeda killer had spent years hiding from the world.
‘One-way mission’ to kill bin Laden
Robert O’Neill, now 50, was among the members of SEAL Team Six who entered the compound during the mission. Speaking to the New York Post in a May 2 interview, O’Neill described the mindset of the team involved as they prepared for a mission many believed they might not survive.
“We were going after bin Laden for the first Americans who were forced to fight al Qaeda, to the death, toe-to-toe,” O’Neill said.
“This would be a one-way mission. You’re not afraid you’re gonna die, but you’re prepared for death.
“If we got caught, I had one rule: I was saving one bullet for myself. I’m not going to a Pakistani prison. There was some concern that the Pakistani police would arrive.”
O’Neill also recalled the instructions given before the operation, saying: “We were told President Barack Obama said to [then-three-star Admiral William] McRaven, ‘How much firepower do you need to rain hell on Pakistan? My men are not surrendering to the Pakistani police.’”
Navy SEALs face-to-face with Osama bin Laden
Once troops entered the darkened compound, the SEAL Team Six moved quickly, searching room after room for the notorious terrorist.
O’Neill said the team “saw people moving behind the curtain” where there should have been a door: “We thought they were suicide bombers.”
“We went through that curtain and he moved them out of the way. They turned out to be Bin Laden’s wives,” he said.
“I turned right and there was bin Laden standing there, three feet away.”
The former SEAL said he recognized him instantly.
“I was impressed with how skinny he was. His beard was sort of gray. His hands were on his wife Amal’s shoulders. I took it as a threat; he could blow himself up.”
According to Time, the first SEAL who entered the room pushed aside Amal because he feared she could be wearing a suicide vest. Another SEAL then shot her in the calf, causing her to collapse unconscious onto the mattress she shared with bin Laden.
The publication reported that bin Laden offered no resistance before he was killed with a “double tap” to the chest and left eye.
“At SEAL Team Six, we shoot you twice in the head right away. I shot him twice and shot him again with my H&K 416. He crumpled on the foot of his bed,” O’Neill explained.
The reality of what had just happened hit O’Neill almost immediately.
“I just shot Bin Laden – like what the f–k?” he recalled.
Amal and toddler
O’Neill said he then moved Amal away from bin Laden’s body while trying to shield her as more SEALs entered the room.
“As I’m moving her, his 2-year-old son Hussein was standing there. We’re all fathers. My thought was, ‘Why did he have to see this?’” said O’Neill, who had a 3-year-old daughter waiting at home for him.
The scene inside the bedroom was gruesome, with blood covering the floor near the bed and brain matter spattered across the ceiling, according to Time.
The outlet also reported that bin Laden had money sewn into his clothing along with two phones he could have used to call for help, though there was little chance of escaping the heavily armed American forces who had finally located him.
What Amal recalled about day Osama Bin Laden died
Years after her husband was killed, Amal described the terrifying final minutes during a 2017 interview, per the Mirror.
She said the family woke to the sound of a helicopter flying above the compound before the walls started shaking around them.
According to Amal, bin Laden told one of his sons to “come up” with his gun before instructing his wives to go downstairs because “they want me, not you.”
Amal decided to remain upstairs with the couple’s 2-year-old son, Hussein, while they listened to the raid closing in around them.
At that point, bin Laden’s daughter Maryam had rushed into the bedroom.
“Go downstairs and go back to bed,” he told her before turning to his wife Amal and saying: “Don’t turn on the light.”
Moments later, the SEALs entered the room.
After Amal was shot in the leg, she recalled how she collapsed and “played dead” as she listened to the special forces team, who were trying to confirm the identity of her infamous killer husband.
