US troops used replica hideout to practice Osama raid

A tractor trolley carries the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed next to Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout. Photo / AP

The operation to kill or capture Osama bin Laden was rehearsed in a replica of the Abbottabad compound where the al Qaeda founder was hiding, US officials revealed.

The team, SEAL Team Six - formed in the wake of the botched US embassy hostage rescue in Iran in 1980, last month carried out trials in a mock-up of the one acre compound at Camp Alpha at the Baghram Air Base, in Afghanistan, the Times of India reported.

Reports suggest there were at least 40 SEALs involved in the operation, which left from the Ghazi air base in Pakistan in three MH-60 helicopters.

- NZHERALD STAFF