Brenna Cooper
A former US Navy SEAL has explained what was running through his mind while standing in-front of Osama bin Laden.
Following the 11 September attacks in New York, the US and its allies spent most of the 2000s engaging in a global war on terrorism, with arguably one of the biggest moments being the killing of the al-Qaeda leader in 2011.
The team tasked with this covert and highly dangerous mission, named Operation Neptune Spear, was SEAL Team Six.
One of the members of this team was Robert O'Neill, the man who claims to have shot the terrorist leader in the head.
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Since retiring from the US armed forces, O'Neill has often spoken about his involvement in the mission, including in a recent podcast interview.
Appearing in a recent episode of High Performance podcast, hosted by Jake Humphrey and Damien Hughes, O'Neill recalled the moment he found himself stood just 'three feet away' from the man who was responsible for the deadliest terror attack in US history.
"You're on the most high profile mission of your life and suddenly, standing right in-front of you, is Osama bin Laden. What are you thinking," asked Humphrey, to which O'Neill recalled thinking about whether or not he'd make it out of the mission alive.
"We went through the curtain at the top of the stairs and the guy in front of me jumped [and] tackled people he thought were suicide bombers," the 48-year-old explained, being going on to add that he turned 'right' at this moment and found himself stood face-to-face with bin Laden.
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Finding yourself in such close proximity with one of the world's most wanted terrorists sounds pretty terrifying, but not for the former Navy SEAL, who'd been trained to deal with this kind of situation.
"Standing in-front of me, three feet away was Osama bin Laden," he continued. "I remember thinking he's a lot skinnier than I thought... taller than me, he was about 6ft 4 [and] his beard was grey."
O'Neill added that he was ultimately able to identify bin Laden by the shape of his nose and claimed that he shot the man 'three times' in the face after noticing that he didn't show any signs of willingness to surrender.
This isn't the first time which O'Neill has spoken publicly about his involvement in Operation Neptune Spear either, with the author previously revealing what happened with bin Laden's wife and young son in the moments after his death.
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"When I shot him he fell to the foot of the bed," he said during a mission on the The Shawn Ryan Show.
"I moved Amal [bin Laden’s wife] 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."