No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden

in the same room.
    On the other side of the hall was a kitchen area. Our return fire had destroyed the room, shredding the pantry and exploding dry goods all over. Water trickled off the counter. The stove had several holes in it and the cheap tile was smashed, with chunks strewn across the counter and floor.
    The floor was slippery from the water and al-Kuwaiti’s blood, which had pooled in the hall and gotten on our boots. We hastily cleared both rooms and headed outside.
    “Shots fired C1, building is secure at this time,” I said over troop net, and tossed an IR chemlight at the guesthouse’s front door. We moved toward the main building to backfill the other teams.



CHAPTER 14
Khalid
    Not even ten minutes had passed since we crashed. Will and I sprinted through the open gate between the guesthouse and the main compound.
    We were headed toward the north door of A1.
    “Explosives set, north door A1,” Charlie said over the troop net.
    His charge was set and he was waiting for the order to blow the north door. All Charlie and Walt needed now was the radio call from Tom to initiate.
    Jen and her analysts were right so far. They suspected that the house was split into a duplex. The Bin Laden family lived on the second and third floors with their own private entrance. The Pacer always came out the north door but the al-Kuwaiti brothers always used the south door.
    Unsure if a hallway ran between the north and south doors, we didn’t want to risk two explosive breaches at the same time. So Tom and his team had come up with a plan to clear the south side of the house first, while Charlie waited for Tom’s radio call before setting off the explosive charge.
    Tom’s three-man team was inside clearing the first floor. Inside the building was dark, almost pitch-black, but under night vision they could easily make out the hallway and four doors opening off the long hall, two on each side. Tom’s team was no more than a few steps inside the house when the point man spotted a man’s head sticking out of the first room on the left. They had already heard the unmistakable sound of AK-47 fire coming from the guesthouse, and they weren’t taking any chances. There was ample time for whoever was in A1 to get ready to put up a fight.
    The point man snapped off a shot. The round struck the occupant, later confirmed to be Abrar al-Kuwaiti, and he disappeared into the room. Slowly moving down the hall, the team stopped at the door. Abrar al-Kuwaiti was wounded and struggling on the floor. Just as they opened fire again, his wife Bushra jumped in the way to shield him. The second burst of rounds killed both of them.
    The team saw another woman and several children huddled in the corner crying. An AK-47 was in the room. Grabbing the rifle, Tom unloaded it while the rest of the team searched the remaining rooms.
    At the end of the hall was a locked door, which was directly in line with the north door. With the south side of A1 secure, Tom’s team quickly exited.
    Usually, we would have left someone to watch the woman and kids in the bedroom, but we didn’t have the time or enough assaulters. The remaining woman and kids were just left in the room.
    “Hey, Charlie, send it,” Tom said on the troop net.
    As they exited the south door, one of the SEALs threw Abrar al-Kuwaiti’s AK-47 into the courtyard. It was dark and there was little chance anyone would come out looking for it.
    Seconds after hearing the call from Tom over the radio, I heard the boom as Charlie set off his breaching charge. Will and I had made our way around the west side of the building and stacked behind the guys lined up to enter the north door, which was now open.
    The SEALs from Chalk Two had by now made their way into the compound. After the failed breach, they had moved over to the main gate and were let in by Mike. They were already stacked on the north door.
    Charlie was already inside, and a loose line had formed as the rest of us waited to enter the target. Through my night vision I could see multiple lasers tracking along the windows and balconies just in case. Scanning my laser above me toward the second and third floor, I didn’t see any movement. Coating on the windows made it impossible to see in or out.
    All of the rushing around had begun to slow. Things were going very smoothly since the crash ten minutes ago. We all wanted to continue the assault up the stairs, but Charlie reported over the radio that an additional metal gate was