Inside the team that killed Bin Laden sent to help advise Israeli hostage rescue
The US Navy SEALs team that killed Osama bin Laden is on standby to help save Israeli hostages from Hamas, sources have said.
Now, the famous SEAL Team Six team is one of a number of teams deployed by Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden along with the likes of Delta Force. President Biden said: "I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts."
It comes after Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on Tuesday that the US has "people on the ground" who will assist Israeli authorities "with intelligence and planning" for potential operations involving hostage rescue efforts.
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Two senior US military officials claimed hostage rescue experts have been sent to advise the IDF on freeing hostages (AFP/Getty Images)Biden added the "military force posture in the region to strengthen our deterrence" had been increased. Two senior US military officials, who spoke anonymously to The Messenger, claimed hostage rescue experts have been sent to advise the Israel Defense Forces on freeing the hostages, some of whom may be American.
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It is believed Hamas took more than 100 hostages during its surprise attack on Israel on Saturday.
The special team was formed with that name in the wake of the huge failure that was the attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980 and was given the name it continues to be known by in an attempt to confuse Soviet spies about how many SEALs teams there were - there were only two. Now, the team's official name is unknown but they are commonly referred to as SEAL Team Six still.
Its members are all “black” operatives, meaning they often operate on missions with the highest level of secrecy, making them frequent collaborators with the CIA. According to a 2011 news report by NBC, the attrition rate for Team Six is reported to be nearly half.
Gen. Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla, chief of US Central Command said: "The arrival of these highly capable forces to the region is a strong signal of deterrence should any actor hostile to Israel consider trying to take advantage of this situation."
Killing Osama bin Laden
SEAL Team Six killed the al-Qaeda leader after a decade-long manhunt culminating in a raid on his compound close to a military base in Abbottabad, Pakistan. He was marked for death after orchestrating the devastating 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Centre, Pentagon, and another hijacked plane.
Such was the anger in the US after 9/11, that members of the team, now retired, said they were more than prepared to die on the mission. Robert O'Neill, the SEAL member who claims to have shot bin Laden, said soldiers "accepted it" and they "weren't afraid."
The Abbottabad compound (Getty)He said to the 9/11 memorial: "He had been fighting since 9/11 almost to a point to get to a spot of preparedness to be good enough to get this mission done. This was a means – proof of concept, ‘we’re going to be able to do this,’ and we’re not coming back."
Two state-of-the-art helicopters were used in the raid in Pakistani airspace, with one of them crash-landing and having to be destroyed. After bursting into the building, SEALs made their way inside the compound, where they came face to face with the man behind nearly 3,000 deaths in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania.
"A foot and a half in front of me was Osama bin Laden," O'Neill said. "And I shot him twice, and then once more. And it didn’t really sink in; the wife sort of came at me and there was like, a two-year-old kid there.
Robert O'Neill"So I pulled her over to the bed and grabbed the kid. And I remember thinking to grab the kid because he had nothing to do with this. I don’t want him to be afraid.
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"So I picked him up, put him with the wife. I turned around, other SEALs were coming in the room, and I kind of stopped there and looked at them.
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"[One of the SEALs] was looking at me, and said ‘Are you OK?’ I said ‘What do we do now?’ And he laughed and put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, ‘Now we go find the computers.’"
The worst day
Riding high since the May 2 raid on the Abbottabad compound, SEAL Team Six was deployed again in the region in August 2011. The location this time was Afghanistan's Tangi Valley, where a mission alongside US Army Rangers saw them attempt an assault on a Taliban compound.
Despite being under the cover of darkness, the Chinook CH-47 transport helicopter carrying 30 US troops and eight Afghans crashed under fire from insurgents on the ground. Every person onboard, including 17 SEALs, were killed and it was the worst day in Team Six's history.
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