( CNN ) -- The United States has formally dropped criminal charges against former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden , who was killed in a U.S. military raid in Pakistan last month . In federal court in Manhattan on Friday , prosecutors disposed of a 1998 indictment that charged bin Laden with murder and conspiracy to kill Americans for his role in attacking U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 . The indictment also alleged that bin Laden tried to attack U.S. defense assets . The bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi , Kenya , and Dar es Salaam , Tanzania , killed 224 people . A raid by U.S. special operations forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad , Pakistan , on May 2 . Preet Bharara , U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York , asked for the change , a request that Judge Lewis Kaplan granted in a brief order . The action came after a thorough analysis confirmed that bin Laden did indeed die after Navy SEALs raided his compound , according to an affidavit from a top U.S. government official that was included in the filing . The officials noted that facial recognition and photograph analysis confirmed the identity , along with DNA testing of the body . `` The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion , '' the official said . Much of the details regarding proof of his death have been previously reported . The original indictment , filed in secret June 8 , 1998 , accused bin Laden of murder and conspiracy to kill Americans , among other charges , after the cab bombings that year at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania . He was the only one originally charged , but other terror leaders were added to that indictment . Typically , court indictments are dismissed when the defendant dies or is convicted on other unrelated cases . Such requests to drop charges are procedural and routine . Pending federal criminal indictments remain against other top al Qaeda officials and their associates . Those include open charges against Ayman al-Zawahiri , who was reported this week to have succeeded bin Laden as leader of al Qaeda . Other pending criminal indictments will probably be amended in coming weeks or months to remove bin Laden 's name , including his self-admitted role as mastermind of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on September 11 , 2001 . A number of other civil lawsuits have been filed by surviving victims and family members of the 9/11 attacks , seeking to hold bin Laden and his terror network financially responsible for causing the worst terror attacks ever on U.S. soil . The disposition of those cases remains unclear . CNN 's Bill Mears contributed to this report .
NEW : Facial recognition and DNA tests confirmed bin Laden 's death , affidavit says . NEW : Chance of mistaken ID is about 1 in 11.8 quadrillion , official says in affidavit . The U.S. accused bin Laden in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa . Comment: