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US military started to round up suspected al-Qaeda members and interrogated them either at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, or at secret overseas prisons. Officials began compiling information about major players, soldiers, couriers and money men.
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of 9/11, was captured in the Pakistani city of Karachi in March 2003 and sent to a prison in Thailand.
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al-Qaeda operative Hassan Ghul was captured in January 2004 in northern Iraq. He let interrogators know at a CIA "black site" where he was held that al-Kuwaiti was very crucial to al-Qaeda and its leader. Ghul said the courier was close to Abu Faraj al-Libi, who succeeded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
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During a CIA interrogation, he admitted that he was promoted to succeed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and he received the word through a courier, but made up a name and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti just like Mohammed did.
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US intelligence agencies identified an area of Pakistan where the courier and his brother were operating, but did not pinpoint exactly where they lived.
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Satellite phone calls that were made by the courier reportedly to known al-Qaeda associates in the cities of Kohat and Charsada in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - were monitored by the US National Security Agency.
Pakistani agents working for the CIA spotted al-Kuwaiti driving his vehicle near the northern city of Peshawar. They began tracking his movements. -
Al-Kuwaiti accidently led the agents to a compound in Abbottabad, It was 35 miles north of Islamabad and a kilometer from the Pakistan Military Academy, with a three-story building inside and concrete walls 18ft high.
The compound was so large, secluded and secure that analysts concluded it was used to shelter a "high-value target", perhaps even Bin Laden. -
A safe house was set up in Abbottabad, in which the CIA officers were able to observe daily activities at the compound for months.
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President Obama chaired his first National Security Council meetings to discuss the options presented by Adam McRaven, because evidence was mounting that Bin Laden was in the compound
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Mr Gates was skeptical about a helicopter assault, and instructed military officials to look at using smart bombs, according to the New York Times. But he was later told it would take some 32 bombs which would be 2,000 pounds each, which would have created a giant crater and destroyed any bodies.
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The compound in which Osama resided was raided and Osama Bin Laden was Assassinated
