'We thought it was a suicide mission', says SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden

A former Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden has said he and his fellow team members thought they were going to die in the raid. Robert O’Neill said the team knew “this is going to be a one-way mission”. Mr O’Neill, 38, came out last week as the man who shot bin Laden in the daring raid on the terrorist’s compound at Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May, 2011. He said he fired two rounds into the forehead of the al Qaeda leader and said the terrorist ” died afraid “. But the remarks have been controversial . His version of events has been disputed, and some special operations service members and veterans are unhappy that Mr O’Neill has taken credit publicly for the killing.

We’re going to go and we’re not going to come back. We’re going to die when the house blows up. We’re going to die when he blows up.

Robert O’Neill in his interview with Fox News

Department of Defense officials confirmed that O’Neill was a member of SEAL Team Six and was part of the raid, but they said they could not confirm who fired the fatal shot, noting that other SEALs on the mission also fired at bin Laden. Mr O’Neill told The Washington Post that shots were also fired by two other SEAL team members, including Matt Bissonnette, who described the raid in his book No Easy Day. In the interview with Fox News, Mr O’Neill said the team trained with targets featuring bin Laden’s face - but when the shooting happened it felt like “it wasn’t real”.

We’re going to die eventually, and this is a good way to go - and it is worth it to kill him.

Robert O’Neill

World Robert O'Neill