Osama Bin Laden is dead

Osama bin Laden, who created the al-Qaida terrorist network that killed 3,000 people in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, is dead.

President Obama is about to announce that news to the nation, NPR and other news outlets have been told by U.S. officials.

With the al-Qaida leader's death, a new and dramatic moment has occurred in a long struggle that has seen the U.S. go to war first in Afghanistan — where al-Qaida was based — and then in Iraq.