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Kevin ClarkeMay 03, 2011

Editorial misadventure of the century award?

<(This story was corrected in the seventh paragraph to say commandos were prepared to capture bin Laden alive, not Obama)>

U.S. commandos knew bin Laden likely would die

By Mark Hosenball – Mon May 2, 11:47 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. special forces set out to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea to make it harder for the al Qaeda founder to become a martyr, U.S. national security officials told Reuters on Monday.

"This was a kill operation," one of the officials said.

"If he had waved a white flag of surrender, he would have been taken alive," the official added. But the operating assumption among the U.S. raiders, he added, was that bin Laden would put up a fight -- which he did.

Bin Laden "participated" in a firefight between the U.S. commandos and residents of the fortified compound near the Pakistani capital Islamabad where he had been hiding, the official said.

Other U.S. officials said the U.S. strike team shot the al Qaeda leader dead with bullets to the chest and head during the course of the 40-minute operation. He did not return fire. ...

Complete article

 

Apparently there was no small amount of this particular typo circulating through the media yesterday ...

Vanity Fair captures some and more here.

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