The former US Navy SEAL who fired the shots that killed Osama Bin Laden has used the mission’s 15th anniversary to shed light on some of the finer details, including the code-word the team had been instructed to radio once the infamous terrorist was confirmed dead.
The hunt for Bin Laden lasted approximately a decade, stretching from the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City to the beginning of May, 2011.
Having strong reason to believe Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden was holed up inside a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after tracking his trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, US officials sent in SEAL Team Six to bring an end to the 10-year hunt.
Robert O’Neill, now aged 50, was part of the team that stormed the compound on May 2, 2011. In 2014, he identified himself as the man who shot Bin Laden dead, and granted a new interview to the New York Post this week to mark the 15th anniversary of the historic killing.
Operation Neptune Spear – reportedly so secret that the Pakistani government was not even told it was playing out – saw a team of SEALS fly into the country in stealth Black Hawk helicopters.
One of the helicopters crash-landed on arrival at the compound, while the SEALS had to clear the place floor by floor.
O’Neill revealed how he and a fellow SEAL made their way to the third-floor landing and could see figures moving behind a curtain. Worried that the individuals there might be wearing explosive vests, the two men pushed on instead of waiting for backup.
“I can remember thinking, ‘We’re going to blow up now, and I’m just tired of thinking about it. Go,” O’Neill recalled to Cowboy State Daily in 2025.
O’Neill’s fellow SEAL tackled two women he believed were wearing explosive vests, a feat O’Neill believes should have earned him a Medal of Honor.
“He jumped on a grenade that didn’t go off,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill himself, meanwhile, was left face-to-face with the man his country had been hunting for the better part of a decade.
“Osama bin Laden stood near the entrance at the foot of the bed, taller and thinner than I’d expected, his beard shorter and hair whiter,” O’Neill wrote in his memoir The Operator, published in 2017.
“He had a woman in front of him, his hands on her shoulders.
“In less than a second, I aimed above the woman’s right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice. Bin Laden’s head split open, and he dropped.
“I put another bullet in his head.”
The US government has never officially confirmed or refuted O’Neill’s account. However, Retired Admiral William McRaven – who oversaw the historic raid – told CNN in 2020 that O’Neill was “the SEAL that, in fact, shot bin Laden.”
Following the shooting, the team at the compound, feeding back to the White House Situation Room, had to confirm Bin Laden’s passing. They reportedly did so using a code name.
“Geronimo” was the code name given to arguably the most infamous terrorist in history, with a SEAL team leader transmitting on the night of May 2, 2011: “For God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.”
Admiral McRaven then prompted for confirmation, to which came the reply: “Geronimo EKIA.”
President Barack Obama is then reported to have responded with his own three words: “We got him.”
Though many people rightly see the men who undertook the operation to kill Bin Laden as heroes, O’Neill has come in for criticism based on his decision to go public with the claim that he was the one who fired the critical shots.
Within the SEAL community, there is a rumored unwritten rule dictating that an operative doesn’t seek credit or plaudits for carrying out an operation.
O’Neill, however, stood by his decision to tell the world that he shot Bin Laden.
“I think it’s a difficult secret to keep,” he told CBS News in 2014.
