Context
The Foreign Office of Pakistan has released a statement confirming the military operation to kill Osama Bin Laden was not a joint operation between US and Pakistan. Media reports indicate the helicopters involved in the operation flew from a base with in Pakistan.
Al-Qaeda leader and founder Osama Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan by US forces, President Barack Obama announced earlier. Bin Laden was killed during a ground operation in the city of Abbottabad, around 100 miles from the capital Islamabad, based on American intelligence, the earliest clue for which surfaced in August last year. According to Obama, US troops took custody of his dead body following a “firefight”. Bin Laden was on the top of the US list of “most wanted”. Obama described his death as “the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda”. Three other persons were killed in the operation- two of Bin Laden’s couriers and one son, according to officials, adding a woman also died when she was used as a “human shield”. Two wives and six children of Bin Laden were also taken into custody.