Revisiting Osama Bin Laden Raid: How this Twitter user live-tweeted the 9/11 mastermind's assassination from Abbotabad

Time of India

02-05-2025

Social media never forgets! Ever scrolled through your timeline and seen a tweet from 2012 suddenly blow up again? Yep, that's the internet for you—where nothing really dies, it just waits for a comeback. Old posts resurfacing on social media have become a kind of digital boomerang.
14 years after
Osama bin Laden
was shot and killed, a tweet that was posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the live raid, has resurfaced and is going viral over social media.
"Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)," Sohaib Athar had posted at 1.28am on May 2, 2011.
On the night of May 1, 2011, Sohaib Athar, an IT consultant in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was working late when he heard an unusual helicopter overhead. He tweeted, "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)," unknowingly becoming the first to report on the U.S. Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
As the raid unfolded, Athar continued tweeting about the disturbances, including a loud bang that shook his windows. Unaware of the operation's significance, he speculated with others online about the events. It wasn't until President Obama's announcement that Athar realized he had live-tweeted a historic event.
Following the revelation, Athar's tweets gained global attention, and he received numerous media inquiries. Despite the sudden fame, he remained modest, stating, "I am JUST a tweeter, awake at the time of the crash." He later shared his experience at the South by Southwest Interactive festival, discussing the role of citizen journalism.
Following the
9/11 attacks
, Osama bin Laden became the most wanted man globally. For nearly a decade, intelligence agencies scoured various regions, with numerous leads proving fruitless. The breakthrough came when the CIA identified a trusted courier of bin Laden, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. Tracking al-Kuwaiti led them to a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a mere 1.3 kilometers from the Pakistan Military Academy. The compound's high walls, lack of internet or telephone connections, and unusual security measures raised suspicions.
On May 2, 2011, U.S.
Navy SEALs
executed a covert operation, codenamed
Operation Neptune Spear
, resulting in the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. In the early hours of May 2, two Black Hawk helicopters transported the SEALs from Afghanistan to Abbottabad. They located bin Laden. He was shot and killed.
Social media is now a kind of living archive. Old posts act like digital breadcrumbs leading us back to the truth (or at least, to a different version of it). So when a key detail from a major event is dug up—say, a first-hand tweet during a protest, or a photo that contradicts the official story—it can completely change how people remember that moment. It's like someone hitting 'rewind' on the news. When old posts resurface, they do more than just being informative—they reshape narratives, spark debates, and sometimes even change public perception.