US President Barack Obama has met and awarded members of the military team responsible for conducting the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, promising a victory over al Qaeda.

"We are ultimately going to defeat al Qaeda," the president told Friday afternoon more than 2,300 troops who recently returned from Afghanistan, as cited by CNN.

"We have cut off their head."

"Our strategy is working and there is no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden," he declared. "We're still the America that does the hard things, that does the great things."

The president made his remarks at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home to the Army's 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the group that operated the helicopters used in the raid.

While at Fort Campbell, the president, along with Vice President Joe Biden, privately met with members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that conducted the raid.

Among the SEALs that Obama met was the one who fired the fatal shots at bin Laden, but that person was not singled out to the president, a senior administration official told CNN.

Obama awarded Presidential Unit Citations to the units involved in the Pakistan mission, the official said. The citation is the highest such honor that can be given to a military unit.

"They practiced tirelessly for this mission, and when I gave the order they were ready," the president told the troops. "They're America's quiet professionals."

It was a "job well done," he said.

The president met a canine that was also part of the operation, according to the official.

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