Internal emails offer details on bin Laden burial

Slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. — File Photo by AP

WASHINGTON: Internal emails among senior US military officials reveal that no sailors watched Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony.        

The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of information about the al Qaeda’s leader’s death.

Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011, by a Navy SEAL team that assaulted his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

One email sent on May 2 by a senior Navy officer briefly describes how bin Laden’s body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet, and then placed in a weighted bag.

According to another message, only a small group of the ship’s leadership was informed of the burial.