Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children - two born in government hospitals, according to one his widows.
The details of the al-Qaeda leader’s life as a fugitive in Pakistan are contained in the interrogation report of Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, his Yemeni widow. They raise fresh questions over how bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long.
Details from the report were first published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. The Associated Press obtained a copy today.
Al-Sada is in Pakistani custody, with bin Laden’s two other wives and several children. They were arrested after the US special forces raid that killed bin Laden in May in his final hideout in the town of Abbottabad. Al-Sada was shot in the leg by US soldiers during the raid.
Mohammed Amir Khalil, a lawyer for the three widows, said the women would be formally charged for illegally staying in Pakistan on April 2nd. That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
Since the raid that killed bin Laden, it has been known that he lived mostly in Pakistan since 2002.
Al-Sada’s account says she flew to Pakistan in 2000 and travelled to Afghanistan where she married bin Laden before the September 11th attacks.
After that, the family “scattered”, and she travelled to Karachi in Pakistan. She later met bin Laden in Peshawar and moved to the Swat Valley, where they lived in two houses. They moved one more time before settling in Abbottabad in 2005.
According to the report, al-Sada said that two of her children were born in government hospitals, but that she stayed only “two or three hours” in the
clinics on both occasions. The charge sheet against the three women says that they gave officials fake identities.
During the search for bin Laden, most US and Pakistani officials said that bin Laden was likely to be living somewhere along the remote Afghanistan-Pakistan border, possibly in a cave.
The fact he was living in populated parts of Pakistan raised suspicions elements in the Pakistani security forces may have been hiding him. US officials have said they have found no evidence this was the case.
AP