The operation that killed Osama bin Laden on the night of May 1-2, 2011 lasted roughly forty minutes from the moment the first helicopter crossed into Pakistani airspace until the last SEAL team member departed the compound in Abbottabad. In those forty minutes, the United States concluded a manhunt that had begun a decade earlier in the rubble of lower Manhattan.

The raid was carried out by a team from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group — SEAL Team Six — working under direct CIA operational authority. The planning had taken months, accelerating after an intelligence breakthrough traced bin Laden's likely location to the Abbottabad compound through patient surveillance of a courier network. The compound itself was large, heavily walled, and conspicuously private — a structure that had stood out enough in an otherwise modest neighborhood that CIA analysts had concluded it was concealing someone of significance.

The decision to conduct a ground raid rather than an air strike was made because the president wanted confirmation of identity. A missile strike would have removed any doubt about the outcome but would have left no physical evidence. A raid was higher risk — both to the operators and diplomatically, since Pakistan had not been informed — but would produce certainty.

The helicopters encountered problems immediately. One lost lift in the compound's walled courtyard and was landed hard against the outer wall to prevent a crash. The team adapted and proceeded on foot. Bin Laden was found on the compound's upper floor and shot twice — once in the chest, once in the head — after a brief confrontation. His body was confirmed by multiple members of the team and subsequently through DNA comparison.

The entire sequence, from border crossing to extraction, was monitored in real time by President Obama and his national security team in the White House Situation Room. The photograph of that watching group became one of the defining images of the Obama presidency.