A Pakistani software consultant tweeting witnessed the attack on the compound where Osama bin Laden died, and has become the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid.

Sohaib Athar, a 33-year-old software consultant living in Abbottabad, the town two hours north of Islamabad where bin Laden was found and killed.

Athar said in his tweets that he had seen helicopters in the area and that he was awake at 1 a.m. local time because of the noise. A few minutes later he tweeted, A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

Later he noted that at least one helicopter had crashed. (He then apologized for making a joke about a giant swatter).

Soon afterwards his tweets were becoming a popular search item on the Internet. He even revived a blog, Reallyvirtual, that he said he had abandoned. His last post from Monday at 11 a.m. local time (1 a.m. Eastern) was titled The guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.

Athar described traffic being shut down in some areas and posted a picture of the area on his twitpic account. Evidently the military had set up roadblocks in the area and cordoned off the helicopter crash site.

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