Osama bin Laden’s wife has revealed the final words he said before being shot dead by a Navy SEAL just over 15 years ago.
Last week marked a decade and a half since the al-Qaeda founder was killed by US armed forces in Pakistan in 2011.
The Saudi-born Islamic extremist was the world’s most wanted terrorist until his death, after he planned the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers killing 2,977 victims, the 2000 USS. Cole bombing and the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.
He declared war on the United States in 1996, with a view to try and remove Western influence from countries where the majority of people are Muslim. However, it wasn’t until two years later when he bombed the US embassies that he was officially declared a terrorist by the US and the United Nations.
Osama bin Laden killed more than any other terrorist leader
Bin Laden is widely believed to be responsible for more casualties than any other single terrorist in history, predominantly asa result of the 9/11 attacks which claimed so many lives. The terrorist group he founded have caused the deaths of many more people.
Bin Laden went into hiding after al-Qaeda claimed responsibilities for the heinous 9/11 attack, while the rest of his terrorist organisation fought against the US and its allies in the War in Afghanistan from 2001 and later the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011.
It wasn’t until 2010 that US intelligence finally discovered bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.
Bin Laden’s youngest wife reveals his final words
Back in 2017, bin Laden’s youngest wife, who was with him at the time of his death, told the Sunday Times how they were woken up by the sound of a helicopter overhead before the walls started shuddering.
Amal al-Sadah said bin Laden told one of his sons to ‘come up’ with his gun, and for his wives to go downstairs as ‘they want me, not you.’
However, al-Sadah said she ignored her husband’s instruction after realising there was no way out. Instead, she remained in the room, along with their two-year-old son Hussein, as they heard the sounds of the Navy SEALS storming the compound.
In his final words, she says he told her: “Don’t turn on the light.”
As it stands, the US forces had already cut the power to the compound where bin Laden and his family were hiding, so al-Sadah wouldn’t have been able to turn on the light even if she tried.
She says that moments later, armed forces rushed into the room and she suddenly felt a pain in her leg and collapsed, realising she had been shot.
The SEALS then turned their guns on bin Laden and shot him dead in his own compound.
The man who has claimed responsibility for shooting bin Laden has spoken publicly about the moment he came face to face with the terrorist leader.
In Netflix’s American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden, Robert J. O’Neill said: “I turn this way and standing in front of me, two feet away is Osama bin Laden. It was one of those moments in life where things slow down.
“He’s taller than I thought, he’s skinnier than I thought, his beard was grey/white, but I recognised his nose, this is definitely him. He’s not surrendering, he’s a threat, not only to me but to my entire team, he has to die.
“I can hear bin Laden taking his last breath. When I shot him he fell to the foot of the bed. I shot him in the face three times. I moved Amal and… his two-year-old son is now standing there, and this is the humanity of everything.
“This kid has got nothing to do with this. I’m a father. I picked him up and I move them to the back of the bed.”
