SEALs Encountered False Door, Arsenal of Weapons
New revelations about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden reveal that the SEAL raiders encountered a false door and found a small arsenal of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle in bin Laden’s bedroom.
As the Navy SEALs have been debriefed about their mission that left the al Qaeda leader dead, the White House has been forced to correct details of what happened during Sunday’s raid at bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound.
Despite the changes in the White House version of what happened during the 40 minute raid on bin Laden’s sprawling million dollar mansion, officials were unapologetic about the SEALs’ actions.
“These guys are American heroes. They were told to kill bin Laden. We’ve had the authority to kill bin Laden since 9/11. And that’s exactly what they did,” a U.S. official told ABC News.
The SEALs were already in a heightened and aggressive posture, but that was exacerbated when one of the first doors they tried to open turned out to be a false door. The bricked off, false door put the military members in a position of suspecting that the house would be full of such items, perhaps with lethal booby traps. The SEALs reportedly had a specially trained dog with them on the raid who could sniff for bombs and to see if rooms were booby trapped.
The Americans were also fired on by a man who was one of bin Laden’s trusted couriers, officials said. The courier was killed by return fire from the SEALs, and they did not encounter any additional gunfire.
That early gunfire indicated to the SEALs that they might expect further resistance. And they did find a small arsenal of weapons in the home.