Most of those missions were forays into North and South Waziristan, where many military and intelligence analysts had thought that bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders were hiding. (Only one such operation the September, 2008, raid of Angoor Ada, a village in South Waziristan has been widely reported.) Abbottabad was, by far, the farthest that DEVGRU had ventured into Pakistani territory.
Mr Bout is thought to have knowledge of Russia's military and intelligence operations, and Russian diplomats fear the revelations he might make in open court, correspondents say.