Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Two Obama administration officials say DNA evidence has proven that Osama Bin Laden is dead, with 99.9% confidence.
The officials did not say where or how the testing was done but the test explains why President Barack Obama was confident to announce the death to the world last night.
After the firefight that killed Bin Laden, the US used "multiple methods" to positively identify his remains, according to a senior Pentagon official who personally saw a photograph of the corpse.
The official, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity, declined to specify the methods of identification, but two Obama administration officials said DNA evidence confirmed the death.
The officials claimed the DNA evidence provides a match with 99.9% confidence.
The US is believed to have collected DNA samples from Bin Laden family members in the years since the September 11, 2001 attacks that triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. It was unclear whether the US also had fingerprints or some other means to identify the body on site.
Bin Laden was shot in the head during the firefight with members of an elite American counter-terrorism unit that launched a helicopter-borne raid on the al-Qa'ida leader's compound in Pakistan early today, US officials said.
Officials said the US special forces who stormed the compound came face to face with their target.
US officials also said bin Laden was identified through "facial recognition," a reference to technology for mapping unique facial characteristics, but it was not clear exactly how the Navy SEAL troops performed the comparison.
The body was later taken to an American warship, but the senior Pentagon official declined to say which one and where the ship was situated.
The body was photographed before being buried at sea, although no images have been released by the Obama administration.
The US official who disclosed the burial at sea said it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. President Obama said the remains had been handled in accordance with Islamic custom, which requires speedy burial.
Positive identification of the remains is considered a critically important part of the US operation, given the symbolic importance of bin Laden's leadership of the Islamic extremist movement that was based in Afghanistan until the US invaded in October 2001.
When al Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US airstrike in June 2006, DNA tests were performed by the FBI to positively identify the remains. The US military also performed an autopsy, in part to dispel allegations in the immediate aftermath of the airstrike that the terrorist leader had been beaten or shot by US soldiers while in American custody.
It was not clear whether the Obama administration intended to release its photos of bin Laden's body.
In July 2003, when US forces killed Saddam Hussein's sons, Odai and Qusai, in a gunbattle in northern Iraq, the US military released graphic after-death photographs in an effort to prove to Iraqis that they were dead.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments