The former US Navy SEAL who fired the shots that killed Osama Bin Laden has used the mission’s 15th anniversary to reveal further details, including the code word the team was instructed to radio once the terrorist was confirmed dead.
The hunt for Bin Laden lasted roughly a decade, stretching from the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City to early May 2011.
After intelligence suggested that Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden was hiding inside a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, following the tracking of his trusted courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, U.S. officials deployed SEAL Team Six to end the 10-year manhunt.
Robert O’Neill, now 50, was part of the team that stormed the compound on May 2, 2011. In 2014, he identified himself as the man who shot Bin Laden dead, and this week gave a new interview to the New York Post marking the 15th anniversary of the killing.
Operation Neptune Spear — reportedly so secret that even the Pakistani government was not informed — saw SEALs fly into the country in stealth Black Hawk helicopters.
One helicopter crash-landed on arrival at the compound, and the SEALs had to clear the building floor by floor.
O’Neill said he and another SEAL reached the third-floor landing and saw figures moving behind a curtain. Worried they might be wearing explosive vests, they pushed forward instead of waiting for backup.
“I can remember thinking, ‘We’re going to blow up now, and I’m just tired of thinking about it. Go,’” O’Neill recalled to Cowboy State Daily in 2025. His teammate tackled two women he believed were wearing explosive vests — an action O’Neill believes should have earned him a Medal of Honor.
“He jumped on a grenade that didn’t go off,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill himself then came face-to-face with the man the U.S. had been hunting for nearly a decade.
“Osama bin Laden stood near the entrance at the foot of the bed, taller and thinner than I’d expected, his beard shorter and hair whiter,” O’Neill wrote in his 2017 memoir The Operator.
“He had a woman in front of him, his hands on her shoulders.
“In less than a second, I aimed above the woman’s right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice. Bin Laden’s head split open, and he dropped.
“I put another bullet in his head.”
The U.S. government has never officially confirmed or denied O’Neill’s account, though retired Admiral William McRaven — who oversaw the raid — told CNN in 2020 that O’Neill was “the SEAL that, in fact, shot bin Laden.”
Following the operation, the team in the compound reported back to the White House Situation Room and had to confirm Bin Laden’s death using a code word.
“Geronimo” was the code name assigned to Bin Laden, and a SEAL team leader transmitted on the night of May 2, 2011: “For God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.”
Admiral McRaven then requested confirmation, receiving the reply: “Geronimo EKIA.”
President Barack Obama is then reported to have responded with three words: “We got him.”
While many view the operation as heroic, O’Neill has also faced criticism for publicly claiming he fired the fatal shots, with some pointing to an unwritten SEAL community rule against seeking credit for missions.
O’Neill defended his decision, saying in 2014: “I think it’s a difficult secret to keep. Everyone was proud. I think it was apparent that we had done it.”
