Osama Bin Laden Dead Killed by US JSOC special forces in Pakistan

KABUL—The U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday it had killed Osama Bin Laden, the most-wanted insurgent for the 2001 September 11th attacks. The al Qaeda leader from Saudi Arabia who was the mastermind behind 9/11 and responsible for setting up terrorist training camps and launching attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces.

Although the commander of coalition forces, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, told reporters earlier this month he doesn't believe al Qaeda is resurging in Afghanistan, some senior U.S. military officers disagree, saying the withdrawals from Nuristan and Kunar have created a vacuum for al Qaeda to come back.

The coalition's Afghanistan target list is classified and the military hasn't released the name of the most-wanted militant. Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri are believed to be hiding across the border in Pakistan.

The intelligence gathering and airstrike that led to Osama Bin Laden's death were conducted by the U.S. military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command, known as JSOC, which has taken the lead in targeting al Qaeda in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. In contrast, the Central Intelligence Agency leads the campaign of drone strikes that has killed numerous al Qaeda operatives sheltering across the border in Pakistan.

Many American officials say JSOC, which oversees elite units such as the Army's Delta Force and Navy SEAL Team Six, is their most effective tool to combat al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has far more freedom to strike than in Pakistan. But they also fear that JSOC, with a global mission and commitments in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and other places, is already stretched thin.

Still, JSOC has counted a series of recent successes against al Qaeda in northeastern Afghanistan. An airstrike in September killed two senior leaders and other al Qaeda operatives who had gathered at a training camp in Kunar. Special Operations forces in December captured another senior al Qaeda operative, Abu Ikhlas al-Masri, who had long operated in and around Kunar. Mr. al-Masri has since provided intelligence about al Qaeda's attempts to reestablish Afghan bases, U.S. officials say.