Osama buried in North Arabian Sea

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in a Muslim ceremony, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

Bin Laden was killed by a U.S. SEALs team in a firefight Sunday night. His body was taken from a compound in Pakistan.

The Islamic religious rites were carried out aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea, American Forces Press Service reported the official said.

"Preparations for at-sea [burial] began at 1:10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (Monday) and were completed at 2 a.m.," the official, who spoke under conditions of anonymity, said.

Bin Laden's body was washed and placed in a white sheet.

"The body was placed in a weighted bag," the official said. "A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker."

Then bin Laden's body was placed onto a flat board, elevated upward on one side and slid into the sea, the report said.

No country would accept bin Laden's body, a senior defense official said.

CIA specialists and others in the intelligence community "performed the initial DNA analysis matching a virtually 100 percent DNA match of the body against the DNA of several of bin Laden's family members," the official said.