All About the Team That Killed Osama: Geronimo E-KIA

It all started in 1980, when the U.S. Army tried to rescue American hostages held captive in Iran. The operation was a total failure, and the need for a special trained force became obvious.

The SEAL Team 6 was started, under the command of Lt Commander Richard Marcinko, as dedicated team for counter terrorism and direct action missions anywhere in the world. The SEAL acronym stands for Sea Air And Land, but they operate mainly in a Maritime environment. The team and its missions are classified, technically they do not exist for the people, details of their missions are rarely present in the news. There are a total of three SEAL teams, but this team was labeled 6 in an attempt to confuse foreign intelligence agencies. Top operatives from other SEAL units have been recruited, trained intensly and used inside Team 6. As they are a top secret unit, do not expecty any names.

Team 6 was definitely involved in the operation that led to the assassination of the terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden, it seems this was a Joint Special Operations Command(JSOC) operation, which also involved rangers and other top flight units dedicated for this type of missions.

The operation started almost one year ago, with close surveillance and planing stages:

- after tracking down Bin Laden's personal courier, in the summer of 2010, U.S. intelligence units reported the presence of the large house in a suburb north of Islamabad at the end of a long dirt road with no phone and no internet;

- in March 2011, after a series of security meetings, President Obama and
along with his staff and heads of intelligence started setting up the
details of the strike;

- after being presented clear evidence that Bin Laden is inside that building, President Obama opted for a terrestrial strike, rather than having the entire building bombed down;

- the raid was intially planned for Saturday but, due to bad weather, it had to be rescheduled;

- Seal Team Six, The United States tier-one counter-terrorism unit, led the assault that hit the compound at 3:30 P.M. The assault lasted almost 40 minutes, and the units were gone by 4:15;

- the operation had been a total success as no American forces were injured during the assault, only one modified MH-60 helicopter has been lost(it costs about $28 million to produce one);

- it seems a bullet hit Bin Laden in the head causing a very deep wound through which his brain could be seen, according to ABC News.

The operation's code name was "Geronimo", when the SEALS broke through, after spotting Osama, they sent back, to the headquarters, the keyword - Geronimo, while after bin Laden was killed, the staff at the headquarters was pleased to hear the message: "Geronimo E-KIA", which translated to "E(nemy) K(illed) I(n) A(ction)", they all knew this meant victory.

The team used light guns like M4 or M16 machine guns, and their close combat pistols, SIG Sauer P226.

 M4 is the shortened version of M16, they are gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed, selective fire, shoulder-fired weapons with a telescoping stock, the selective fire options include semi-automatic and three-round burst (like the M16A2).