IT worker breaks Bin Laden raid news on Twitter

Social media's role in game changing political events was again apparent as an IT consultant broke the news on Twitter that the US had found Osama Bin Laden's hideout.

Sohaib Athar from Abbottabad, Pakistan, used his @ReallyVirtual Twitter account to chronicle events as a team of US Navy Seals stormed the Al-Qaeda leader's hideout and killed him.

His tweets at the time of the event on May 1 include:

- Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

- A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

- all silent after the blast, but a friend heard it 6 km away... the helicopter is gone too.

Athar told the BBC he was not surprised at being the only person tweeting about the events during the attack.

"I've been tweeting for about five, six years, and been tweeting about Abbottabad because no one really talks about it," he said.

"In fact, not many people use Twitter here. Everyone uses Facebook," he added.

However, Athar has now become the victim of a cyber attack, as Websense reported that his blog site has been infected by hackers since his high-profile tweets.

Keith Urbahn, chief of staff to former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld (@keithurbahn), also used a micro-messaging site to get word out just before official word broke.

"So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden," he said, followed by: "Don't know if it's true, but let's pray it is."