TTP says Osama bin Laden alive

Karachi, May 2 (ANI): Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has denied the reports that Osama Bin Laden was killed, Geo News reported. The statement came even as American officials said that the US Special Forces operation to find and kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday was planned as an elite strike by a small team to minimize any collateral damage or death in the area. According to CBS News, the team went on board two Black Hawk helicopters. "It was a military team of about two dozen, but they were operating under the authority of Leon Panetta, the CIA Director, since the US military does not have authority to operate in Pakistan. A second team of about two dozen orbited out of sight in case they were needed," the officials said. They also said that US troops were at the compound for less than 40 minutes. "Laden did not go peacefully. He resisted arrest and was killed in a firefight as US troops entered the compound," the officials said. The officials also revealed that none of the specific intelligence resulting in the raid was shared with any other country, and only a "very small group of people" inside the Obama administration knew it was to happen. The Pakistan government was notified after the operation was over, officials say. (ANI)