Nine years, seven months and 21 days since the horrific terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania that he ordered, Osama bin Laden is dead. News broke late last night that special forces operatives of the United States had killed the leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, north of the capital of Islamabad. His body is in the hands of the United States military.

In an address to the nation around midnight Sunday night, President Obama recounted a long-running military intelligence operation to locate and ultimately eliminate bin Laden. Though details are relatively sketchy, as we should expect from an operation of such extraordinary importance and secrecy, Obama described this final effort as beginning in August of last year, when American intelligence agencies received information about bin Laden’s location at a large compound in Pakistan.

Though it was widely believed that bin Laden was in hiding in that nation, most suspected he was deep in the Hindu Kush mountains, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. However this compound was located 35 miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, and amazingly, had already been mapped by Google.

According to Obama, the operation conducted yesterday was approved last week, when the President determined the intelligence and military preparation adequate to proceed. Talking Points Memo is reporting,

“No Americans were killed or injured in the raid. A woman at the site being used as a human shield died, according to a senior administration official on a conference call with reporters. Bin Laden is said to have resisted the assault force and been killed in an ensuing firefight. Intelligence officials in other countries, including Pakistan, were only informed of the raid after it had been ordered.”

An American military helicopter was damaged by ground fire during the operation, and American forces elected to destroy it rather than leave its sophisticated technology and intelligence behind.

Meanwhile in New York and Washington, jubilant crowds gathered at Ground Zero and the White House. The New York Times reports that, “cheering crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House shortly before midnight as word of his death began trickling out, waving United States flags, shouting in happiness and chanting ‘USA! USA!’”

And Politico is reporting that bin Laden’s body, retrieved by American military forces after the raid, is being handled “in accordance with Islamic practice.”

The longer-term consequences of bin Laden’s death are far from clear. Pakistani officials were quick to describe the operation as “a joint U.S.-Pakistani operation”, though only US personnel took part in the raid itself. To whatever extent the Pakistani intelligence community participated in planning and preparation of the mission, it is encouraging. Yet the fact that bin Laden was able to seek refuge for so long in the very heart of Pakistan, not in the lawless and sparsely populated mountains along the Afghan border, is extremely troubling.

What is also unclear is the actual strategic importance of eliminating bin Laden. He had long ago lost centralized control over the Al-Qaeda network, if such a term is even appropriate anymore for an organization that splintered dramatically under US military pressure. Yet Osama bin Laden was certainly a potent symbol, largely because of his successful evasion of capture for so long. His death will deal a terrible emotional and spiritual blow to his followers.

But that may not be what’s important here. Even if nothing changes in the overall trajectory of the United States’ long war against terrorist threats, his death provides a measure of narrative closure for his victims here and abroad. President Obama proclaimed forcefully last night that “justice has been done.” And, right now, that feels like enough.