Military Operations

Operation Neptune Spear

Contemporary

Citation Formats

General Reference

War and Military Atlas. "Operation Neptune Spear." Accessed September 8, 2026. https://military.interactiveatlas.org/military-operations/operation-neptune-spear.

APA Style

War and Military Atlas. (n.d.). Operation Neptune Spear. Retrieved September 8, 2026, from https://military.interactiveatlas.org/military-operations/operation-neptune-spear

BibTeX

@misc{warandmilitaryatlas-operation-neptune-spear,
  author = {War and Military Atlas},
  title = {Operation Neptune Spear},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://military.interactiveatlas.org/military-operations/operation-neptune-spear},
  note = {Accessed September 8, 2026}
}

Operation Neptune Spear was the United States raid on 2 May 2011 in which Navy SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU) killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Approximately 79 commandos, flown in by helicopters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, assaulted the compound in a raid lasting roughly 40 minutes, ending a decade-long manhunt.

Facts

Operation Type

Special-forces raid (targeted killing) 1

Start Date

2011-05-02 1

End Date

2011-05-02 1

Location

Bin Laden compound, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan 1

Participants

U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU), 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, CIA Special Activities Division 1

Objective

Locate and kill Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda and organizer of the September 11 attacks 1

Outcome

Osama bin Laden was killed along with four others; one U.S. helicopter was lost in a hard landing without casualties; bin Laden's body was buried at sea 1

Cross-Tradition Connections