'Stoic' Obama followed killing

Decision to take out al-Qaida leader 'gutsiest' call in years, top aide says

WASHINGTON - Agonizing "minutes passed like days" after Barack Obama made what a top aide dubbed the "gutsiest" presidential call in years, and followed in real time as special forces swooped on Osama bin Laden.

Obama's gruff anti-terror adviser John Brennan, who hunted the al-Qaida mastermind for 15 years, offered tantalizing details on Monday of the high-stakes operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in which bin Laden died.