This Day in History: Osama Bin Laden Is Killed by US Forces (Saturday, May 2)

This Day in History: Osama Bin Laden Is Killed by US Forces May 2, 2011 After an international manhunt lasting nearly a decade since the 9/11 attacks, the 54-year-old Al Qaeda leader was killed in a raid conducted by a team of 23 U.S. Navy Seals.

The operation on Bin Laden's hideout compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, lasted 40 minutes.

President Obama addressed the nation from the White House announcing Bin Laden's death, saying, "Justice has been done." The mastermind of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil had lived the final five years of his life less than a mile from a Pakistani military academy.

President George W.

Bush had declared that Bin Laden would be captured dead or alive.