XYON
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A good friend of mine has written the following very interesting article regarding the OBL kill mission raid in Abbotabad. It is reproduced below for all interested.
So after years and years of searching high and low, Osama Bin Laden is finally history. Good Riddance.
But it was the way he was rid of is of great interest to the common man. Many people out there are surrounded by hearsay and myths primarily because of lack of expert knowledge on how it all went about. Well this small 'NOTE' is an effort to lessen that mental fog for some based entirely on my years of military tactics & equipment knowledge.
The Americans were primarily tracking OBL's courier for a long time using real time 'look-down' satellite. Yes its the same satellite images one see's in those Hollywood action flicks. However no advanced satellite from many miles up in the earths stratosphere can accurately decipher a man's face. Obama in all his wisdom was not sure, even in the light of detailed intelligence from his master spooks, whether OBL was present in this compound or not as there was not direct proof in hand, only expert intelligence assessments! He decided to take a risk and his gamble paid off big time. The Americans took their time to play this hand because they needed time in months to carefully plan and practice the entire mission and at the same time not to rush into any likely traps etc set by Al-Qaeda.
CENTCOM SOCOM (Special Operation Command) HQ based in Florida gave command to the Sea Air Land (SEAL) Team units to start rehearsing the raid in California where the SEAL HQ is based. the commandos got on the job, built a replica building from satellite imagery of the target compound for special Close Quarter Battle (CQB) Training. While the helicopter unit was practicing a 'dead zone' run (this is to create a safe corridor for flying low and through a zone where ground based surveillance radar reflections are not present). Sikorsky had designed especially manufactured UH-60 'Silent' Helicopters with inverted rotor ends and disc covered center main and auxiliary rotor plates in order to minimize noise detection. These helicopters were in test phase initially by the US forces but were decided by the US CENTCOM to put in such an important operation essentially to get a 'trial-by-fire'! Still being experimental platforms is the reason why one of these 'Silent' Sikorsky crashed albeit due to firing or may getting its tail tangled into the high wall barbed wire in the compound. The main purpose of this raid was silent-in and quick out from the target.
This was a KILL MISSION from the get go! When the GO call came from Obama, SEAL Team Six (that is the unit of SEAL Commandos specializing in such attacks. Pakistan Army has an equivalent SSG unit called the Zarrar Company) started their journey on the modified and silent pair of Sikorsky Helicopters. The SEAL team had a main unit of 12 people and a stand-by unit of additional fully armed commandos as stand-by in the second chopper. The choppers entered from Afghanistan flew through the 'dead-zone' corridor (consisting of mainly mountainous valleys of Naran, Kaghan) and reached the target compound in about 50 minutes of flying time. One helo hovered in the large yard next to the house where the first unit of SEAL Team 6 repelled down. Meanwhile the second unit in the second chopper repelled down and immediately secured the compound from the outside from unwanted and any surprise intrusion from the neighborhood. The first unit progressed quickly to first cut wire on the lights on the compound from the outside installed electric meter. Once the entire compound went into complete darkness, the commando unit flipped its Night Vision Goggles from the helmets and turned on the helmet cams that transmitted the entire mission in High Definition Hollywood movie style directly to the Pentagon, CIA in Langley and White House Situation Room. Having the element of surprise on their side and in sheer darkness where without Night Vision goggles it was almost impossible to see, they moved surgically into the building clearing floor after floor and shooting the half-asleep guards of OBL who were not sure what was going on and they were haphazardly firing their AK-47's into the darkness of a moonless night. Reaching the top floor and apprehending OBL, the SEAL team dragged him outside of the compound where the rest of the women and children were also present in plastic shackles! One of the SEAL team member immediately took out a handy DNA analyzer equipment, forcefully opened the mouth of OBL, swapped a cotton bud on his upper jaw to get a sample of his spit. Injecting the spit contaminated unit into the hand-held DNA analyzer, they waited for a few seconds before the said analyzer confirmed the genetic code of the Bin Laden family! This was to the only way to be sure with 100% confirmation that they had their target. After taking a few pictures on-spot, SEAL team sought permission from CIA Langley on target's disposal. Getting the signal for the objective to be neutralized a double tap shot in the heart and the head (in order to ensure instant death without the chance of any revival) was executed professionally by the SEAL Team 6 leader using his 5.56mm modified CQB rifle.
At this time, the second chopper crashed for reasons perhaps only to be known to the manufacturers!! and the SEAL Team unit got spooked! They had orders to round up everyone captured but now with only one working chopper and their raid exposed, they had not time. Decision was made instantly to leave behind the women and the children in order to extract the crashed chopper SEAL Team Unit 2 in the only remaining and operational Black Hawk. All 24 SEAL Team Commandos rushed into the Sikorsky chopper, dragged the kill trophy of the dead Osama and one of his injured adult sons and quickly flew, high speed through the same mountain route towards the Afghan border. All was over in 40-45 minutes before the first response unit of the Pakistan Army arrived at scene to find dead bodies inside the house and shackled women and children wailing against the wall outside with a huge ball of fire just outside the compound (That was caused due to the down Sikorsky Helo being blown up by the SEAL Team while retreating using C4 remote controlled explosive charges.
And half way around the world, the US President and his security team was watching this raid unfold itself LIVE on wide screens with images form the SEAL Team Helmet Cams and from the over-head Thermal Imaging Satellite operated by the USAF and CIA.
Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Intelligence set-up has been caught literally with its pants down in this raid. This raid essentially should be a huge wake up call for our military planners to counter in future. Let us hope to God, that the Americans are not dumb enough to share these raid tactics with our arch enemy across the Eastern border, because that would then be really stupid on both their parts.
FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU. FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME! Let us hope this mantra will now be etched in the minds who were complacent earlier to let all of this happen in the first place. Ameen!
So after years and years of searching high and low, Osama Bin Laden is finally history. Good Riddance.
But it was the way he was rid of is of great interest to the common man. Many people out there are surrounded by hearsay and myths primarily because of lack of expert knowledge on how it all went about. Well this small 'NOTE' is an effort to lessen that mental fog for some based entirely on my years of military tactics & equipment knowledge.
The Americans were primarily tracking OBL's courier for a long time using real time 'look-down' satellite. Yes its the same satellite images one see's in those Hollywood action flicks. However no advanced satellite from many miles up in the earths stratosphere can accurately decipher a man's face. Obama in all his wisdom was not sure, even in the light of detailed intelligence from his master spooks, whether OBL was present in this compound or not as there was not direct proof in hand, only expert intelligence assessments! He decided to take a risk and his gamble paid off big time. The Americans took their time to play this hand because they needed time in months to carefully plan and practice the entire mission and at the same time not to rush into any likely traps etc set by Al-Qaeda.
CENTCOM SOCOM (Special Operation Command) HQ based in Florida gave command to the Sea Air Land (SEAL) Team units to start rehearsing the raid in California where the SEAL HQ is based. the commandos got on the job, built a replica building from satellite imagery of the target compound for special Close Quarter Battle (CQB) Training. While the helicopter unit was practicing a 'dead zone' run (this is to create a safe corridor for flying low and through a zone where ground based surveillance radar reflections are not present). Sikorsky had designed especially manufactured UH-60 'Silent' Helicopters with inverted rotor ends and disc covered center main and auxiliary rotor plates in order to minimize noise detection. These helicopters were in test phase initially by the US forces but were decided by the US CENTCOM to put in such an important operation essentially to get a 'trial-by-fire'! Still being experimental platforms is the reason why one of these 'Silent' Sikorsky crashed albeit due to firing or may getting its tail tangled into the high wall barbed wire in the compound. The main purpose of this raid was silent-in and quick out from the target.
This was a KILL MISSION from the get go! When the GO call came from Obama, SEAL Team Six (that is the unit of SEAL Commandos specializing in such attacks. Pakistan Army has an equivalent SSG unit called the Zarrar Company) started their journey on the modified and silent pair of Sikorsky Helicopters. The SEAL team had a main unit of 12 people and a stand-by unit of additional fully armed commandos as stand-by in the second chopper. The choppers entered from Afghanistan flew through the 'dead-zone' corridor (consisting of mainly mountainous valleys of Naran, Kaghan) and reached the target compound in about 50 minutes of flying time. One helo hovered in the large yard next to the house where the first unit of SEAL Team 6 repelled down. Meanwhile the second unit in the second chopper repelled down and immediately secured the compound from the outside from unwanted and any surprise intrusion from the neighborhood. The first unit progressed quickly to first cut wire on the lights on the compound from the outside installed electric meter. Once the entire compound went into complete darkness, the commando unit flipped its Night Vision Goggles from the helmets and turned on the helmet cams that transmitted the entire mission in High Definition Hollywood movie style directly to the Pentagon, CIA in Langley and White House Situation Room. Having the element of surprise on their side and in sheer darkness where without Night Vision goggles it was almost impossible to see, they moved surgically into the building clearing floor after floor and shooting the half-asleep guards of OBL who were not sure what was going on and they were haphazardly firing their AK-47's into the darkness of a moonless night. Reaching the top floor and apprehending OBL, the SEAL team dragged him outside of the compound where the rest of the women and children were also present in plastic shackles! One of the SEAL team member immediately took out a handy DNA analyzer equipment, forcefully opened the mouth of OBL, swapped a cotton bud on his upper jaw to get a sample of his spit. Injecting the spit contaminated unit into the hand-held DNA analyzer, they waited for a few seconds before the said analyzer confirmed the genetic code of the Bin Laden family! This was to the only way to be sure with 100% confirmation that they had their target. After taking a few pictures on-spot, SEAL team sought permission from CIA Langley on target's disposal. Getting the signal for the objective to be neutralized a double tap shot in the heart and the head (in order to ensure instant death without the chance of any revival) was executed professionally by the SEAL Team 6 leader using his 5.56mm modified CQB rifle.
At this time, the second chopper crashed for reasons perhaps only to be known to the manufacturers!! and the SEAL Team unit got spooked! They had orders to round up everyone captured but now with only one working chopper and their raid exposed, they had not time. Decision was made instantly to leave behind the women and the children in order to extract the crashed chopper SEAL Team Unit 2 in the only remaining and operational Black Hawk. All 24 SEAL Team Commandos rushed into the Sikorsky chopper, dragged the kill trophy of the dead Osama and one of his injured adult sons and quickly flew, high speed through the same mountain route towards the Afghan border. All was over in 40-45 minutes before the first response unit of the Pakistan Army arrived at scene to find dead bodies inside the house and shackled women and children wailing against the wall outside with a huge ball of fire just outside the compound (That was caused due to the down Sikorsky Helo being blown up by the SEAL Team while retreating using C4 remote controlled explosive charges.
And half way around the world, the US President and his security team was watching this raid unfold itself LIVE on wide screens with images form the SEAL Team Helmet Cams and from the over-head Thermal Imaging Satellite operated by the USAF and CIA.
Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Intelligence set-up has been caught literally with its pants down in this raid. This raid essentially should be a huge wake up call for our military planners to counter in future. Let us hope to God, that the Americans are not dumb enough to share these raid tactics with our arch enemy across the Eastern border, because that would then be really stupid on both their parts.
FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU. FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME! Let us hope this mantra will now be etched in the minds who were complacent earlier to let all of this happen in the first place. Ameen!
