Five years after the death of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, more details revealed about the operation

THE man who killed Osama bin Laden has revealed more about bringing down the 9/11 mastermind.

Retired Navy Seal Rob O'Neill says he shot and killed Osama bin Laden. Picture: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

FIVE years ago, Rob O’Neill chomped on a sandwich watching television at Bagram Airfield. Osama bin Laden’s dead body lay on a table next to him.

Mr O’Neill was the reason bin Laden lay lifeless on that table on May 2, 2011. He explained the details of the death of the world’s most notorious terrorist in a matter-of-fact manner years later to relatives of 9/11 victims.

“I explained how I went into a room and I saw him and he was standing three feet in front of me and he was a threat and I shot him,” Mr O’Neill said Sunday on Fox and Friends.

Mr O’Neill said he and his fellow Seal Team 6 members were still in the uniforms they wore on the mission when President Barack Obama announced the death on television.

“I heard him say Osama bin Laden, I looked at Osama bin Laden — I thought, ‘How in the world did I get here from Butte, Montana?’” Mr O’Neill said.

Even half a decade after bin Laden was taken out, little-known information about the operation and the hunt that led up to it is trickling in. Mr O’Neill revealed on Sunday that the much-publicised kidney ailment bin Laden was said to have and the dialysis machine he was said to have with him were merely counterintelligence myths propagated to weed out sources that were lying.

Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals five years ago. Picture: AP

Bin Laden’s death, however, has not decreased the threat from Islamists.

John Brennan was the chief counter-terrorism adviser to President Obama when Mr O’Neill’s elite team stormed bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

Mr Brennan is now the CIA director and faces a new nemesis, Islamic State, and a new wily figurehead, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“He’s important and we will destroy ISIL,” Mr Brennan said on Meet The Press using the other name IS is known by.

“I have no doubt in my mind. Bin Laden had important symbolism and, if we got Baghdadi, it would have great impact on the organisation. We’re going to have to remain very focused.”

Mr Brennan recalled the outpouring of emotion that greeted the announcement of bin Laden’s death.

“I remember that same evening, the chants of ‘USA’ and ‘CIA’, culmination of hard work,” Mr Brennan said. “We had destroyed a large part of al-Qaeda.”

But al-Qaeda, however much diminished, has survived bin Laden’s death and is joined in its destructive efforts by IS.

“This new phenomenon of ISIS — this will continue to challenge for years to come,” Mr Brennan said.

This article originally appeared on Fox News.