NEW YORK: US commandos, who killed Osama bin Laden in a covert operation on May 2 in Pakistan, had been practising along with a Belgian Malinois dog for the D-Day for nearly a month with a replica of the al-Qaida leader's Abbottabad compound.A team of two dozen navy Seals from Red Squadron, which has about 300 operators , were asked to report to a densely forested site in North Carolina for a training exercise on April 10.A replica of the compound had been built at the site, with walls and chain-link fencing marking the layout of the compound. The team spent the next five days practising maneuvers, the New Yorker magazine said in its latest issue bringing into light new aspects of the entire operation, which was codenamed Operation Neptune's Spear.On April 18th, the DEVGRU squad flew to Nevada for another week of rehearsals. The practice site was a large government-owned stretch of desert with an elevation equivalent to the area surrounding Abbottabad."An extant building served as bin Laden's house. Aircrews plotted out a path that paralleled the flight from Jalalabad to Abbottabad. Each night after sundown, drills commenced." the report said. PTIFrom prez to chief: Measuring tapePresident Barack Obama gifted a measuring tape to the Vice-Admiral Bill McRaven of the US Seals, the navy unit which killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, after he found out that the commandos did not have one to measure the height of slain al-Qaida leader following the covert raid.

Uploaded By : kshitija  |  Reference Site : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/For-Osama-raid-Seals-practised-with-model-den/articleshow/9463288.cms