Osama tried to hide behind his wife?

UPDATE 4:13

May 03, 2011
Obama aide: Bin Laden not armed when killed


By David Jackson, USA TODAY

Osama bin Laden was not armed when a U.S. Navy SEAL shot and killed him during the raid two days ago in Pakistan, a White House spokesman said today, contrary to previous accounts provided by Obama administration officials.

"He was not armed," spokesman Jay Carney said today while reading a revised narrative that corrects other errors from previous readouts of the operation that took the life of the world's most wanted terrorist.

The new account changes the initial claim, later withdrawn, that bin Laden had used a woman believed to be his wife as a "human shield" when confronted by U.S. forces during the raid that began at 4:15 p.m. Sunday, Washington time.

The updated version says "a woman -- bin Laden's wife -- rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed."

"Bin Laden was then shot and killed," the narrative adds at that point. "He was not armed."

At a White House briefing yesterday, counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don't know."

Brennan also said bin Laden was "hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield."
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Obama aide: Bin Laden not armed when killed

40 minutes to capture or kill: Timeline, history of Osama bin Laden raid
Sunday's dramatic events, with a continuous firefight that ended in Osama bin Laden's death in Pakistan, were preceded by years of intelligence gathering and extensive, painstaking planning.

By James Oliphant, Washington Bureau
4:01 p.m. EDT, May 2, 2011


Reporting from Washington— After landing by helicopter at the Pakistani compound housing Osama bin Laden on Sunday, the U.S. special operations team tasked with capturing or killing the Al Qaeda leader found itself in an almost continuous gun battle.

For the next 40 minutes, the team cleared the two buildings within the fortified compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, trying to reach Bin Laden and his family, who lived on the second and third floors of the largest structure, senior Defense Department and intelligence officials said Monday.

"Throughout most of the 40 minutes, they were engaged in a firefight," said a senior Pentagon official, who characterized the operation as intense but deliberate.

Bin Laden "resisted" and was killed by U.S. gunfire in the larger building toward the end of the operation. He fired on the assault team, a U.S. official said, and may have tried to use his wife as a shield. The woman also was killed.

After the firefight, the special-operations force quickly gathered papers — valuable intelligence on Al Qaeda, officials said — and other materials in the two buildings and clambered back on helicopters, taking Bin Laden's corpse with them.
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40 minutes to capture or kill