Terror chief’s daughter witnessed his killing

A SENIOR Pakistani intelligence official revealed that one of Osama bin Laden’s daughters had seen her father being shot dead by US forces, and was one of about 10 relatives of the al-Qaida leader in custody pending interrogation.

The official, who declined to be identified, said the daughter, aged 12 or 13, was one of the people who had confirmed that the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks had been killed by US commandos in the raid.

It also emerged that bin Laden did not use one of his four wives as a human shield in his dying moments, contrary to earlier reports, as White House officials began to “clarify” early accounts of the commando raids by US special forces.

The relatives — one of bin Laden’s wives and up to eight children — will be interrogated and then probably turned over to their countries of origin, and not the US, in accordance with Pakistani law, he said.

The official said the wife and children were left behind after an American transport helicopter was abandoned because of mechanical problems.

He said there was not enough room for the group on the other helicopters, which were transporting bin Laden’s body, other male captives and the commandos.

Originally, John Brennan, a US counter-terrorism official said: “There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Osama from the incoming fire.” But the White House has clarified this and said his wife was only injured in the assault, most likely in the crossfire.

Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the ISI, said it is embarrassed by its failures on capturing the al-Qaida leader.

An ISI official told the BBC the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed by US forces on Sunday had been raided in 2003, when it was believed an al-Qaida operative, Abu Faraj al-Libi, was living there.

But the compound “was not on our radar” since then, the official said.

“It looks bad,” he said. “It makes us look like a fool or an idiot. It’s pretty embarrassing.”

While there is no evidence Pakistani officials knew Osama bin Laden was living at the compound, the US is not ruling out the possibility, President Barack Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser said.

“[Pakistani officials] are expressing as great a surprise as we had when we first learned about this compound, so there is no indication at this point that the people we have talked to were aware of this, but we need to dig deeper into this,” White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan said in an interview with National Public Radio.

When asked whether officials in Pakistan’s military might have known about bin Laden’s presence in the compound, Brennan said it was possible.

“I think it would be premature to rule out the possibility that there were some individuals inside of Pakistan, including within the official Pakistani establishment, who might have been aware of this, but we’re not accusing anybody at this point.”