Osama bin Laden phoned his mother in Syria one day before the September 11 attacks to deliver an ominous warning that communication would soon be cut off.
The al-Qaeda leader told her he would not be able to meet with her for a while because “something big” was on the horizon, according to accounts of the call. The conversation came on September 10, 2001, hours before the deadliest terrorist attack in modern history would claim 2,977 lives across four hijacked commercial aircraft.
Two of those planes struck the Twin Towers in New York. A third hit the Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Friday marks 25 years since the attacks that reshaped American foreign policy, domestic security, and global counterterrorism efforts. Memorial ceremonies are expected to honor the victims across the country.
The man behind the plot would evade capture for nearly a decade after that final call to his mother. Bin Laden spent years hiding inside a walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the secrecy surrounding his presence eventually drew international attention.
US Navy SEALs raided that compound on May 2, 2011, killing bin Laden during the operation. Robert J. O’Neill, the SEAL who claims credit for firing the fatal shots, later described the moment he came face to face with America’s most wanted man in Netflix’s “American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden.”
“I turn this way and standing in front of me, two feet away is Osama bin Laden. It was one of those moments in life where things slow down,” O’Neill said in the documentary.
He continued: “He’s taller than I thought, he’s skinnier than I thought, his beard was grey/white, but I recognised his nose, this is definitely him. He’s not surrendering, he’s a threat, not only to me but to my entire team, he has to die.”
O’Neill added: “I can hear bin Laden taking his last breath. When I shot him he fell to the foot of the bed.”
The SEAL also recounted the aftermath of the shooting, describing how bin Laden’s two-year-old son was standing nearby as he moved the body. “I shot him in the face three times. I moved Amal and… his two-year-old son is now standing there, and this is the humanity of everything,” O’Neill said.
“This kid has got nothing to do with this. I’m a father. I picked him up and I move them to the back of the bed,” he added.
The warning call to bin Laden’s mother has become one of the chilling final pieces of known communication from the terrorist leader before the attacks unfolded. The detail emerged in various accounts over the years as investigators and journalists pieced together the final days of the plot.
Bin Laden’s death in the Abbottabad raid ended the most expensive manhunt in American history, though the consequences of September 11 continue to shape military engagements, surveillance policies, and national security debates a quarter century later.
Memorial observances for the 25th anniversary are scheduled to take place across the United States on Friday.