Osama bin Laden is dead

Osama bin Laden is dead. He was 54. The leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist network had eluded capture for a decade since the attacks on September 11, 2001. U.S. forces and CIA operatives killed him in a firefight in his hideout compound in the city of Abbotabad, Pakistan. He was buried at sea. -- Lane Turner

Pakistani soldiers walk past the bin Laden compound, surrounded in red fabric, where locals reported a firefight took place overnight in Abbotabad, located in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province May 2. (Faisal Mahmood/Reuters)

A crashed military helicopter is seen near the hideout of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after an operation by U.S. Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

People celebrate in Times Square in New York City after the death of Osama bin Laden was announced by U.S. President Barack Obama May 2. (Mario Tama/Getty Images

A large, jubilant crowd reacts to the news of Osama bin Laden's death at the corner of Church and Vesey Streets, adjacent to ground zero, during the early morning hours of May 2, in New York City. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

Servicemen hang off a lamp post cheering in celebration as thousands of people celebrate in the streets at Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center, waving American flags and honking horns to celebrate the death of Al Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden on May 1, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Dionne Layne (right) hugs Mary Power as they react to the news of the death of Osama bin Laden May 2 in New York City. At left is the rising tower, 1 World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower. (Mark Lennihan/AP)

Armed Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers stand guard in New York's Grand Central Station on May 2. Security was heightened as a result of the announcement of the killing of Osama bin Laden. (Stephen Chernin/AP)

A pair of women honor their aunt, Cecelia E. Richard, who was killed in the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon, by carrying her picture amongst revelers near the White House in the early morning hours in Washington, May 2. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

People gathered around the gazebo on Boston Common after President Barack Obama announced that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden and taken custody of his body May 2. (Cecille Avila for The Boston Globe)

Afghan men working at a TV shop hug each other while watching the news of the death of Osama bin Laden May 2 in Kabul. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

People burn a photograph of Osama bin Laden as they celebrate his death in Ahmedabad, India May 2. (Stringer/Reuters)

A survivor pays homage at the memorial wall with the engraved names of 248 people killed in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi May 2. The Cooperative Bank building, which was also damaged in the August 7, 1998 truck bomb attack, is reflected on the memorial wall. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

People read the extra edition of a Japanese newspaper in Tokyo May 2, reporting Osama bin Laden was killed in an operation by U.S. forces. (Shizuo Kambayashi/AP)