>> yes, indeed. that's our broadcast for now. "nightly news" coming up next. >> we hope to see you again on news 4 at 11:00 and it's a special one-hour edition of "nbc nightly news." the death of osama bin laden. the raid, how u.s. special forces got him, the reaction here at home and around the world, and the reality, what does it mean for the americans fighting overseas and for those who lost loved ones on 9/11, including the new york city fire house we visited today, where that day will never be forgotten. "nightly news" from ground zero tonight, begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening from ground

zero in lower manhattan. osama bin laden is dead. the man who killed thousands of innocent people. the man who launched the united states into two wars in the name of that attack, the man who changed the way we have to live in this country. the man who did all of this was killed by u.s. special forces acting on orders from president obama. we first learned his name back when there was still smoke rising from ground zero behind us here. the u.s. came close to getting him, but could not. he was villainized. he became something of a cartoonish cave-dwelling creature over time. in the end, though, we learned he was living well, under deep cover, but it wasn't deep enough. as the presidential and his national security team watched on live tv in the white house, two choppers full of americans landed on his compound in

pakistan, rappelled down ropes and began attacking. he's already been buried at sea. a chapter is over while a new one begins. we have comprehensive coverage for you. jim remains on duty at the pentagon to start us off. >> reporter: the cia made it official today that dna testing positively confirmed the navy s.e.a.l.s gauot their man. the massive compound that was osama bin laden's base of operations sat empty today after u.s. operations pulled off their daring nighttime raid. it was president obama who broke the news. >> tonight, i can report to the american people and the world that the united states has conducted an operation that k l killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda. >> reporter: it was half past midnight in pakistan. american helicopters loaded with navy s.e.a.l.s hugged the ground to avoid detection from

pakistani radar as they closed in for the kill. as they reached the compound, small arms fire erupted from the rooftops and then panic. one of the helicopters lost altitude and was forced to land in the middle of the compound. no americans were injured, and in minutes, a dozen commandos were looking for osama bin laden. in a firefight that lasts 40 minutes, the s.e.a.l.s killed two operatives on a small building on the edge of the compound. they then cysystematically went room by room where they found osama bin laden and his son. as the s.e.a.l.s closed in, bin laden opened fire. the s.e.a.l.s fired back, killing bin laden and a woman. bin laden was the last to die with at least one gunshot to the head. this video obtained by abc

reportedly showed the room where been laudb win laden. they believe there was no other way out. >> the word was osama bin laden would not surrender, and his security agents had been told to kill him if it looked like they were going to lose him to a u.s. snatch operation. >> reporter: the commandos departed with bin laden's body, and before the end of the day, his body was aboard the u.s.s. carl vinson where he was given a proper muslim burial at sea. u.s. officials tracked him down, while the u.s. military took him out. >> this is what we call a clean hit and a solid piece of work from an intelligence and special opralgzs standpoint. >> reporter: and that windfall may just be beginning. navy s.e.a.l.s recovered large

volumes of computer data and hard drives. so much of it that could provide valuable intelligence on al qaeda. there's so much of it that they have created an entire task force all its own just to wade through it. >> jim, after a long night on the story and a long day at the pentagon, jim, thanks. last night, when it happened, a bit in advance, a handful of journalists received phone calls from the white house telling us to get to our offices and studios and a big announcement was coming. and what a long night it was in the office. savannah guthrie is with us. she has exclusive details behind the scenes as to what was unfolding. >> we learned that the special ops team practiced this raid in early april twice add a mock compound here in u.s. soil. they were prepared to take bin

laden alive, but expected him to fight back and die. he was shot twice in the left eye by a commander who saw him and instantly recognized him as osama bin laden. >> i thing we can all agree, this is a good day for america. >> the president at a medal of honor ceremony today, one day after ordering u.s. forces to take out america's most wanted terrorist. >> the world is safer. it's a better place because of the death of osama bin laden. >> today, aides are describing the incredibly tense moments inside the situation room as nbc first reported, the president was able to monitor the 40-minute operation as it unfolded, getting what a top u.s. official described as audio and visual updates from the ground. >> it was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time in the lives of the people who were assembled here yesterday. >> reporter: getting word of bin laden's capture, a senior aide said applause broke out in the

situation room. the president remarked, we got him. then, minutes before midnight, nearly ten years after that awful september day, the president addressed the nation. >> the american people did not choose this fight. it came to our shores. we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al qaeda's terror, justice has been done. >> "usa!" >> outside the gates, a spontaneous outpouring as people gathered to rejoice. >> the last thing osama bin laden saw on this earth was a small team of americans who shot him. >> reporter: officials found bin laden by tracking his longtime trusted courier, in august, finding him in a compund outside of islamabad. valued at over $1 million, but with no phone or internet service. officials believe it was custom

built to hide osama bin laden. the president considered four different options, ultimately rejecting a plan to have stealth bomber bombers destroy the plant. >> the president had to evaluate the strength of the situation and made one of the gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory. >> reporter: on friday morning, the president gave the official order and then went on with business, touring storm-ravages alabama, giving a commencement speech speech, even giving the annual white house correspondents dinner. >> people think bin laden is hiding in the hindu cush, but did you know that every day from 4:00 to 5:00, he hosts a show on c-span. >> they had a code name for success, it was geronimo, i can report tonight the actual transmission from the ground

commander to the operational commander in afghanistan, he said for god and country, geronimo, geronimo, geronimo. >> it was a patriotic outpouring sknrx it started there in the situation room. savannah guthrie with her reporting from the situation room. the spontaneous gathering in lafayette park outside the white house, there was another one in ground zero, but that was just the start of the american reaction from coast to coast. lester holt with us with more on that aspect. >> reporter: think back to last night, how many unknowns were there? first of all, the said he's going to go on national tv, no one knew hot he was going to say. even later, when we knew it was going to be word of the death of osama bin laden, we didn't know how people were going to react, but surprisingly, it was much the same.

it was the refrain echoed from every corner of the country as the news began to spread. crowds descended on the white house and times square in new york. >> the job is complete. maybe we can bring our troops home. >> from college campuses to the stands at a philadelphia phillies game. to the streets of boston. there were unabashed celebrations over the death of a villain. >> he was the mastermind of so many terrorist attacks and so many terrible things that have happened to u.s. people, so i'm happy he's dead. >> reporter: his death reminded us of the many faces and names of bin laden's victims. >> they finally got him, and of course, it makes me cry again. because it brings back memories. >> reporter: emotions were especially raw today at what are now hallowed grounds. shanksville, pennsylvania. >> gives you a special feeling to pay homage to the people we

st that day. >> the pentagon. >> just a good day to be a u.s. marine and united states citizen. >> and ground zero. >> look at the freedom tower. >> jackson and his wife evelyn came to honor his brother abe who was killed in the world trade center. >> finally, the purveyor of evil was brought to justice. >> off duty flight attends who lost colleagues, tried to find closure, too. >> when we heard of the tragedy, it was just a question of who we knew. >> you happened to be on a layover in new york today. >> we just arrived. >> was there any question you had to come down here? >> no. >> even as a gleaming new tower fills in one part of ground zero, the outpouring remind us the time of the american psyche

is not so easily healed. a lot of these gatherings had a fair amount of bravado but also whispered under the breath that fear that what may be a major blow against terror could open up a major chapter. >> so is this, the fbi and department of homeland security are warning people that the death of bin laden would, quote, likely inspire homegrown extremists in the u.s. trootry to carry out attacks in the near tomorrow. the very best possible person to talk about this issue where we are right now is the longtime commissioner of the city of new york, rail cey kelly. >> i saw the cones, now familiar to new yorkers. squad cars moving through the city, very visible.

let's say a family of four is coming to visit us in new york tonight. what will they see? >> they'll see an increased uniform presence certainly in time square, tomorrow, in the financial district and lower manhattan. certainly on the subway system, we have dogs. we have what we call searches where uniformed officers will go in large numbers. so they'll see increased police presence in the near future. >> you and i have talked about this in plain english, because new york didn't get the federal funding you wanted, you needed, you thought your deserved, you have set up a mini-cia, mini-five here. you have eyes on major parts of the city. do you feel your infrastructure is up to perhaps an increased tempo from what we have seen in ten years? >> i thing. it's certainly a possibility. we're doing everything we possibly can to protect the city, the infrastructure is protected as best we can. we have some old structures here

just like just about every city has, but the mayor has made certain that we have the money to protect the city. he said to me, do what you have to do to make us safe, and we'll find the money. it's a long-term issue, bridges, highways. >> and no reason to suspect an uptick right now? >> no immediate threats. this is good news with complications. we have to be prepared for some sort of retaliatory attack, and we are, working with our federal partners to see that we're ready. >> commissioner ray kelly of the nypd. we'll take a break. when we come back, again, in plain english, we thought he was living in a cave. we were comforted by that knowledge, in fact. so how long was he living in a nice home, and how many people knew about it? and later a new york city fire house that lost five guys

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now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more. back here at ground zero, lower manhattan, as you look at live picture of what is going to be the memorial, the old footprints of the buildings. we received news president obama will visit ground zero on thursday of this week. it was his predecessor who made history by grabbing that megaphone on that awful day and addressing the workers. the president again will visit here on thursday. returning to what i said before the break, a lot of americans thought osama bin laden was frankly living in a cave, on the run all these years. we were surprised, a lot of people were, to find out he was living in a very nice home, the best in that area. the question is, how many other people knew about it?

our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell in our washington bureau has been working this aspect of the story. >> in the end, osama bin laden wasn't underground in a remote mountain cave after all. he was living in luxury in a suburb of pakistan's capital, on land controlled by the military, hiding in plain sight. in this sleepy military town, only 35 miles from islamabad, his military compound was a mansion with 10 to 18-foot walls topped with wire. there were other red flags. the luxury home eight times the others around it had no phone or internet access. in these pictures, neighbors are almost next door in the military academy, the equivalent of our west point. >> it is a little incredible.

my personal view is they certainly probably were aware of it. >> reporter: u.s. intelligence contend it could have only been built for osama bin laden. so how could army and spies not have known? >> it could have been a case of eyes wide shut where they kept their eyes wide opened bup closed as far as americans were concerned. >> there are a lot of questions asked about the role of the pakistani intelligence agency and as well, the pakistani military. >> reporter: the neighborhood certainly noticed the raid, blogged in realtime in twitter at reallyvirtual. helicopter hovering above abbottabad is a rare occurrence. they have poured almost $20 billion into pakistan without getting a reliable ally.

bill clinton couldn't get pakistan to cooperate in going after the terrorists. after 9/11, they said they had to target al qaeda, but little happened. last year, hillary clinton said was many were thinking. >> i believe somewhere in our government, there are people who know where osama bin laden and al qaeda is. >> reporter: today, the president's anti-terror chief said it's unconceivable he didn't have a support system inside pakistan and he acknowledged people are wondering if that support came from pakistan's government, adding, understandably. >> andrea mitchell with that asspktd of the story. thanks. when we come back, we'll have the story of how those who lost lot of brothers on 9/11 are greeting this news from lost lot of brothers on 9/11 are greeting this news from overseas. th my boys, n and i'm like, "oh, promise mommy you'll never ever pick up a cigarette." i had to quit. ♪ my doctor gave me a prescription for chantix, a medication i could take and still smoke,

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every second. they're on the wall, they're on the kitchen table. they're on the rig. figuratively and literally, that's a big part of their presence, is really felt here. >> yes. yes, it is. when i got to the fire house, it was one of the first things instilled in me. never forget those guys. they live on forever. >> it's a sad day that should always be remembered and never be forgotten. >> do you feel a generational pre-9/11, post-9/11 difference? >> i came on post-9/11. and we did lose a lot of experience, but we're pretty resilient. >> i think it shows a lot of resolve by the u.s. and by the fire department by bouncing back, and the commitment we have to the country to get these guys. >> a lot of people on ground zero least night were using the word "justice" and it seemed kind of appropriate. do you agree with that? >> yeah, justice was served last nys. >> when you heard the news, what

was your reaction? what does it continue to be today in. >> everybody was texting. it was all over the news. it was good to hear. about time after ten years. they got him, so it's a relief for all of us. it's a new era, we're ready to go, and that's what we're here for. >> right at the end of our conversation, duty called. it was time for the men of engine 23 to answer the alarm again. our thanks to the men of 23 engine in manhattan, there place they call the lion's den, some of the best guys you could ever know. we're back with more news after this. k. then i found out advair helps prevent symptoms from happening in the first place. advair is for asthma that's not well controlled on a long-term asthma medicine, such as an inhaled corticosteroid. advair will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. advair contains salmeterol which increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization

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fight back. fight plaque. niaspan. our chief foreign correspondent richard engle has been stationed overseas covering our nation's dual wars since virtually right after 9/11 happened here. richard, it makes sense to ask you about reaction throughout the arab world. >> reporter: the reaction has been very strong, brian. there's a hope that this marks the end of america's war on terrori terrorism, which has been so costly, as everyone knows, for the united states, but also costly for the arabs.

they have killed more muslims than anyone else, and people blame al qaeda when they're profiled at the airports. they want to move on. >> richard engle in what has been called the third front, libya, the news that wads at the top of the broadcast until this. a word to ow viewers, depending on your station, this is an hour-long of nbc news. for us and for now, i'm brian ♪ ♪