Osama bin Laden Killed in Firefight

Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday in a firefight in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said in a White House release.

Obama called Bin Laden, "the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children."

Developments in the search for Bin Laden took off last August, Obama said. 

"It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground.  I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.  And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice," Obama said.

Then Sunday, Obama directed a targeted operation against the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. After a firefight, U.S. forces killed Bin Laden and took custody of his body, Obama said. No Americans were harmed, he said.

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) called the event a milestone in the fight against terrorism. 

"Osama bin Laden was a murderer who devoted his life to the destruction of freedom, democracy and our way of life," Cardin said. "Tonight all Americans can feel safer knowing that bin Laden is dead, but we must remain vigilant in the continued fight against al-Qaeda and any terrorists who seek to harm our nation."

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