ISLAMABAD -- Osama bin Laden was killed in a helicopter raid on a mansion in an area north of the Pakistani capital, U.S. and Pakistani officials said today.
Four helicopters launched the attack in the Bilal area of Abbottabad, about 100 kilometers north of Islamabad, a Pakistani intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
One helicopter crashed after it apparently was hit by fire from the ground, the official said. The official gave no word on casualties.
Few details were immediately available of the operation that resulted in bin Laden's death.
President Barack Obama said that no American involved was harmed.
Pakistani officials said the helicopters took off from a Pakistani air base in the north of the country.
The killing of bin Laden "deep inside Pakistan" underlines concern that terrorists "belonging to different organizations find sanctuary in Pakistan," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a statement today, according to Bloomberg.
A senior administration official said Obama gave the final order to go after bin Laden on Friday.
The official added that a small team found its quarry hiding in a large home in an affluent suburb of Islamabad. The raid occurred in the early-morning hours Sunday.
The news that bin Laden had been killed close to Islamabad will raise questions of how he managed to evade capture and how long he had been there.
Most U.S. intelligence assessments had placed him along the lawless border that separates Pakistan and Afghanistan.
