The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden was first revealed on Twitter.

IT Consultant Sohain Athar, living in Abbottabad, wrote that a helicopter was hovering overhead before the assault began.  He stated that it might not be a Pakistani aircraft.

Mr Athar only became aware of the significance of his tweets once US President Barack Obama announced details of Bin Laden’s death.

The IT Consultant’s first posting came at around 1am local time (9pm BST), tweeting “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).”

Soon after, he reported the explosion, later known to have been the US forces blowing-up their damaged helicopter; ”A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S”

Such is the power of this micro-blogging service; it has been a key resource for the media trying to stay ahead of events.

In the five years Twitter has been around, it has played a growing role in reporting world events.  This recent event can only expand its number of users and use.