U.S. Troops Were 1,800 Yards from Osama bin Laden in 2008, Training Pakistanis How to Catch Him John Cook · 05/03/11 03:08PM According to Wikileaks documents, about 100 U.S. troops deployed to Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2008, just yards from Osama bin Laden's lair. They were there to train the Pakistani military how to capture or kill Al Qaeda terrorists. It didn't take.