White House Declares Bin Laden Dead

Osama bin Laden was killed by American military forces, President Barack Obama announced late Sunday.

Bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, is credited with the infamous destruction of the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

"And yet we know that the worst images were those that were unseen by the world,” Obama said. “The empty seat at the dinner table, children that are forced to grow up without a mother or a father, parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace.”

Sunday night's news comes less than 10 months after Ballwin resident Army Sgt. Zachary M. Fisher was killed in Afghanistan as part of Operation: Enduring Freedom on July 14, 2010. Fisher graduated from Marquette High School in 2004, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article said. He was 24 years old.

Another Ballwin resident, Lance Cpl. Matthew P. Pathenos was killed in February of 2007 at the age of 21. The Marine was killed during combat operations in the Iraqi Anbar Province.