Bin Laden lived for five years in Pakistan house, says wife

Osama bin Laden’s Yemeni wife said the Al-Qaeda kingpin had lived for five years in the compound in Abbottabad where he was shot dead by US commandos, Pakistani security officials said yesterday.

The revelation, if corroborated, would pile further embarrassment on the country, which is already reeling from accusations of incompetence and complicity in allowing bin Laden to hide out a mere 50 kilometres from Islamabad.

The terror chief’s wife, who was shot in the leg during the raid by US Navy Seals, is undergoing medical treatment and interrogation in Pakistan along with 15 of his other relatives, the officials said.

“She said in Arabic that bin Laden and his family were living in this compound for the last five years and he never left the compound,” one said.

“But this is only her statement and we have not yet corroborated it,” the official added. A second security official confirmed the information.

Last Sunday night US commandos flew in helicopters to the three-storey home in a suburb of Abbottabad, where they discovered bin Laden on the third floor, shot him dead and flew off with his body, which was later buried at sea.

Al-Qaeda has vowed to avenge the architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks, declaring him a “martyr” and calling on Muslims to rise up against the US. A wave of attacks on government targets in the Afghan city of Kandahar which left two dead and 29 wounded yesterday were described as “revenge” by extremists for bin Laden’s killing, a statement from President Hamid Karzai’s office said.

“Al-Qaeda and its terrorist members who have suffered a major defeat with the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory have tried to hide this defeat by killing civilians in Kandaharand take their revenge on the innocent people of Afghanistan,” the statement said.