US President Barack Obama announced the death of al Qaeda’s elusive leader Osama bin Laden on Monday. Bin Laden was reportedly killed in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan in a house outside Islamabad on Sunday. Osama’s body was recovered, Obama said. Osama was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

Those attacks led to the invasion of Afghanistan, a subsequent war and occupation of Iraq and drone attacks inside Pakistani territory. The Afghan conflict led to at least 9,759 civilian casualties during the 2007-2010 period of the Afghan war, according to a United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) estimate. The conflict in Afghanistan spilled over into the Pakistan leading to terrorist attacks and military operations taking a toll on Pakistani citizens and the Pakistani state. Moreover, at least 98,170 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the war in Iraq and the ensuing conflict in the Middle Eastern country.

On May 2, 2011, President Obama announced, “Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children.”