President Obama is reporting that Osama Bin Laden is dead, killed by US forces in a special operation in Pakistan. Not clear yet if this was with the permission of the Pakistan government, but probably it was a situation with “unofficial” permission that won’t be reported to keep things cooler for Pakistan, where many are in sympathy with Al Qaeda and/or don’t want the US in the country.
The compound in Pakistan was in the city of Abbottābad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. I was surprised to find that this is actually a popular tourism location as a gateway to many attractions in Pakistan such as the Karakoram Mountain Range and Karakoram highway to China, the world’s highest major paved road (and certainly one of the highest roads in the world, period)
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Truly ridiculous: 30 miles from Islamabad, in a town with a major presence of the Pakistani Army (the Baloch regiment is headquartered there), in a mansion, no less. The Pakistani military and intelligence are in this up to their eyeballs — for nearly ten years. It’s nice to have such great and reliable “allies”.
Karakorum’s high country, with many 8000m+ peaks—like K2–really north-western Himalaya. Popular with some mountaineers–or was, pre-WWIII days. But not exactly a good place for the Griswold’s family vacation.
There could definitely be some repercussions to this.