Today former US Navy Seal Matt Bissonette, who only unmasked his true identity last year after years of protecting his identity with a pseudonym, reveals the details of an extraordinary mission which toppled Bin Laden on May 2, 2011
The US Navy Seal who shot Osama Bin Laden has demanded his country “learn their lessons” from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to prevent escalating a bloody war with Iran.
Former special forces serviceman Matt Bissonette – one of a crack team to execute the Al Qaeda leader in a covert operation in 2011 – has urged President Donald Trump not to send “boots on the ground” into the Middle East and avoid needless deaths.
In an interview to mark 15 years since the toppling of Bin Laden, Matt has told how he has still not processed what happened on the infamous Operation Neptune Spear, reveals how the assignment left him with severe injuries and tells of he discovered the evil Taliban leader’s secret disguise… a bottle of Just For Men hair dye.
As tensions in the Middle East remain on a knife edge, Matt – now 50 – who did 13 combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2012, told the Mirror: “It is essential we learn our lessons. I’m glad they’re not invading Iran like we did Iraq. We’re not building bases and putting tanks on the ground and sending thousands of soldiers in like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re not doing it and I’m at least glad to see that.
READ MORE: Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issues horror new threat to AmericansREAD MORE: Inside daring raid that killed Osama Bin Laden – from helicopter crash and finding his hair dye to fatal shot
“I’m hoping it shows that just maybe we’ve learned a few things. Because I can tell you from first-hand experience, the way we did it in Iraq and Afghanistan did not work. Too many of my friends died and too many lives were lost.”
On bringing down Bin Laden, he said: “I try not to be defined by that moment but I joined the Navy Seals just before he orchestrated 9/11. It was a driving goal to bring him down. So it is still hard to process I fired shots that brought Bin Laden down. It was a remarkable mission and it’s hard to believe it is 15 years on. I’m proud we relieved the world of one of its worst tyrants.”
Today Matt, who only unmasked his true identity last year after years of protecting his identity with a pseudonym, revealed the details of an extraordinary mission which toppled Bin Laden on May 2, 2011 – as the 23-strong special forces team scrambled from the US to Afghanistan and then to Bin Laden’s lair in Pakistan.
Extraordinarily, he revealed how he broke his neck as his team’s helicopter crashed as they attempted to land near their target yet still carried out the 40-minute raid on Bin Laden’s secret bunker – killing the despot and his son Khalid.
Our interview comes days after US president Donald Trump hinted he would escalate his country’s action in the Middle East after he took to his Truth Social page to declare ‘No more Mr Nice Guy’ towards Iran along with an AI-image of himself holding an assault rifle against a backdrop of missiles striking buildings.
Matt, who grew up in Alaska, joined the Navy Seals in 1999. While on his first tour, terrorists directed by Osama Bin Laden crashed passenger planes into New York and the Pentagon – killing almost 3,000 at 9/11.
Matt said: “From that day, it was very clear that it was Osama Bin Laden that we were after. We had a focus – ‘get this guy.’ We would regularly talk about getting him and making sure we brought him down.”
As he rose the ranks of the Navy Seals, he toured Iraq and Afghanistan 13 times – conducted many covert missions – and averaged 250 days away on service a year for a decade. In total he estimates he spent around “three or four years put together in the countries”.
In all these years Bin Laden evaded international special forces who tried to bring him to justice. But in April 2011, he and the rest of the team he was in were pulled into a high-security meeting when they were told about intel about a possible hiding place in Pakistan.
After a week of training, the team were scrambled to Afghanistan before boarding a helicopter bound for a compound – believed to contain wanted Al Queda targets. The 23-man team also had a translator and an explosives dog with them.
He said: “We were poised in Afghanistan waiting for orders from President Obama to give us the thumbs up. It was the most experienced of teams – everyone had been on hundreds if not thousands of covert missions. We were meant to launch the mission the day prior but it was delayed.”
But the next day the weather was significantly warmer and as they made their descent towards their target, the high temperatures played havoc with the landing – sending the chopper spiralling to the ground.
Matt said: “I was sitting in the doorway when we crashed. We were supposed to hover, push a rope out, slide down the rope and go to work, but that never happened. We got very lucky. We hit the ground and then it was time to jump out and go to work. We were now in the compound in one of the houses outside the main house – it was a house of one of Bin Laden’s facilitators. The first door we got to, I ended up being shot at through.”
Soon the door opened and a woman and her child were sent to open it. The Seals forced their way in found a stairway, moving the women and children to safety, and found a reinforced metal door in front of a staircase.
Matt said: “That gave another sign they were trying to hide something. We blew through the door, there was no power, no lights, it was very quiet – not like you see in the movies at all.”
Intel had informed them that they would first find Bin Laden’s son Khalid on the first floor of the main house. Very quickly, they saw a man moving.
Matt added: “The point man – our man at the front – whispered out, ‘Khalid’, at which point he poked his head around the door and was shot. It was Khalid and he had an AK47 in his hands. It was amazing bit of calmness from our point man.
“We then headed up to the third floor and I remember another head popping out. Our point man took a couple of shots and that head disappeared into the room. I then shot him again on the floor. It was Bin Laden. But at that point we were just looking for threats we didn’t have time to identify him. There were two women in there who we now know were his two wives. We questioned the women and eventually they revealed it was Bin Laden. We had to check his face. He was tall and had a very dark beard. I recognised his nose but the dark hair threw me.
“There was no grey in the beard. But when I searched his bathroom, I found just for men hair dye. He had been dying his beard. We had Bin Laden.”
“What struck me about the house was that Bin Laden’s room was incredibly tidy while the rest of the house was a mess. I went through his closet and the clothes hanging in there were perfectly evenly spaced like a military boot camp.”
They collected up Bin Laden’s body, collected any evidence they could find including computers, moved the women and kids to a safe place and blew up their own crashed helicopter before scrambling away in another chopper. They debriefed in Afghanistan before being flown home to the US.
Matt said: “Our boss just said, ‘well done guys, have two days off’. We just went home. It felt so weird being at home knowing what we had done. I couldn’t sleep. Everyone knew what we’d done. I went to put the bins out on one of the days and a neighbour came up and gave me a hug and said, ‘I guess you never know who your neighbours are.’”
As Matt tried to come to terms with the mission and the adrenaline wore off, the severity of his injuries started to reveal themselves.
He said: “I had a torn rotator cuff and needed surgery and then that’s when I really started figuring out my neck had more issues. I’ve had a fusion, two artificial discs, five neck surgeries. It was all from the helicopter crash.”
A few months after the mission, Matt was dealt a hammer blow when a third of the command group he worked in were killed in the Extortion helicopter crash, which killed 22 in Afghanistan.
He said: “It showed how life had gone from huge highs to huge lows. I lost so many friends. It confirmed my decision to leave the Navy Seals. We had Bin Laden and getting him was the reason I stayed with command so long.”
In 2012, Matt, who has now started a new life rearing wagyu cow, wrote a book under his pseudonym Mark Owen about the operation but faced the wrath of US officials for revealing information which was deemed classified.
He has now written another book called No Easy Way with his real name attached – talking about the trauma he has been through.
He said: “My journey as a Nay Seal had the most remarkable arc. It went from 9/11 to my last mission being killing the man who orchestrated 9/11. I feel very proud but as a world we must learn our lessons from previous conflicts.”
Matt’s book No Easy Way is out later this month
