Osama Bin Laden is Dead

Osama bin Laden has been killed.

"I can report to the American people and the world that the United States has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden," President Obama said in an address to the nation Sunday night.

Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., was said to have been shot while in a remote region of Pakistan and his body is reported to be in U.S. hands, according to CBS News.

CNN quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that U.S. forces killed bin Laden in a mansion outside Islamabad. 

Some national security experts are calling this a major turning point in the war on terror.

“The death of Osama bin Laden is an important milestone in the fight against terrorism and a relief to millions of Americans and others around the world who have felt his murderous destruction," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, in a written statement. Cardin is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Co-Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

Cardin continued, "Osama bin Laden was a murderer who devoted his life to the destruction of freedom, democracy and our way of life. Tonight all Americans can feel safer knowing that bin Laden is dead, but we must remain vigilant in the continued fight against al-Qaida and any terrorists who seek to harm our nation. I join the President and all Americans in thanking the military professionals who carried out this mission. We depend on them and owe them our gratitude and our prayers.”