On Sept. 11, 2001, members of the terrorist group al-Qaida attacked the United States, killing 2,977 civilians and caused hundreds of billions of dollars of damage. The hearts and minds of the country were forever changed. The man responsible: Osama bin Laden.

Nearly a decade later on May 1, 2011, bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs, ending his reign of terror forever.

The killing of bin Laden was the climax of a 15-year manhunt. The U.S. government had been tracking him since 1996 due to his role in numerous terrorist attacks throughout the world, including the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and numerous hotels, churches, synagogues, trains, ships, military outposts, and housing complexes.

He was found to be hiding in the Tora Bora Mountains just months after the 9/11 attacks and was nearly captured there by joint U.S.-British forces. After confirming their target was indeed hiding in the mountain range using a short-range radio, the special task force shelled al-Qaida’s position for 56 hours with gunfire, airstrikes, mortars, and other heavy artillery. In the end, the terrorists escaped through a pass in the mountains, and bin Laden disappeared until 2011.

For years the CIA, FBI, NSA, and Department of Homeland Security worked to find the perpetrator of the deadliest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. They hit brick wall after brick wall in their search, but nevertheless continued the mission.

It wasn’t until a captured al-Qaida leader imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay gave up a small, but crucial, piece of information: an alias of one of bin Laden’s couriers.

U.S. officials found the alias belonged to Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and from there found him living in Abbottabad, Pakistan. After putting al-Kuwaiti under surveillance, U.S. officials found him traveling in and out of a compound on a regular basis. Bin Laden had finally been found.

The only thing left to do was to identify the target and take the shot. The intelligence agencies needed to find out if bin Laden was in the compound. They started a program to vaccinate the entire city of Abbottabad against the hepatitis B virus. In a covert operation, a nurse entered the compound, administered the vaccine to everyone inside, and, most importantly, collected a few drops of blood for DNA testing.

All these efforts, the surveillance, intrigue, interrogations, and analysis, had finally worked out. It was time to kill bin Laden.

On May 1, 2011, at approximately 3:30 p.m. EST, bin Laden was killed by a team consisting of 79 personnel, mostly U.S. Navy SEALs.

He was laid to rest in an undisclosed location in the ocean, and his funeral was conducted in proper Islamic tradition.

With the death of Osama bin Laden, America had succeeded in its mission to bring the mastermind of 9/11 and countless other atrocities to justice.

For more information about the manhunt and death of Osama bin Laden, visit http://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/osama-bin-laden#section_5, http://www.npr.org/2011/05/03/135951504/timeline-the-raid-on-osama-bin-ladens-hideout, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-14190032, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vaccinations-osama-bin-ladens-dna, and http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-dead.html.

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