The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency tweeted the details of an operation that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden Sunday, drawing thousands of retweets and likes from apparent supporters while others responded with criticism.
The operation was the one President Barack Obama approved in May 2011 that involved special operations forces flying helicopters into a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and later dumping bin Laden's body into the sea.
Twitter has been around since 2006, but the CIA is a relative newcomer with an account dating back just two years. The agency's 1,600 tweets usually involve its history, profiles of agents killed in service or public comments from current officials.
But with the fifth anniversary of the bin Laden raid, the CIA announced it would "live" tweet the details as if they were happening again to its 1.3 million followers. Over the course of six hours, the tweets laid out the events that ultimately ended what had been a nearly decade-long search for the man whose organization killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.