Asia-Pacific

Pakistan paints dismal image of bin Laden's end

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-07 17:18

Islamists parade with a picture of Osama bin Laden during a protest in Cairo, May 6, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Already tense military and intelligence relations between the US and Pakistan have been further strained by the raid that killed bin Laden.

Both countries have an interest in their version of bin Laden's hidden life.

A weak bin Laden would make Pakistan's failure to unearth his hiding place in Abbottabad, a military town just two-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital, seem less of a glaring embarrassment, while a menacing bin Laden would make the US Navy SEAL raid that killed him a greater triumph.

The proximity of the al-Qaida chief's hideout to an elite military academy and the Pakistani capital has raised suspicions in Washington that bin Laden may have been protected by Pakistani security forces while on the run.

Pakistani officials have denied sheltering him and have criticized the US operation as a violation of their country's sovereignty. Pakistan's army, a key US ally in the Afghan war, threatened on Thursday to review cooperation with Washington if it stages any more attacks like the one that killed bin Laden. The army is considered the strongest institution in Pakistan, but its reputation has taken a beating in the wake of the raid.

Risking more tensions, a US drone strike on Friday killed 15 people, including foreign militants, in North Waziristan, an al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuary close to Afghanistan, said Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Such attacks were routine last year, but their frequency has dropped this year amid opposition by the Pakistani security establishment and people on the street.

Hundreds of members of radical Islamic parties protested in several Pakistani cities Friday against the US raid that killed bin Laden.

"America is celebrating Osama bin Laden's killing, but it will be a temporary celebration," said Abdullah Sittar Chishti, a member of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party who attended a rally in Khuchlak, a town in southwestern Baluchistan province.

"After the martyrdom of Osama, billions, trillions of Osamas will be born," Chishti said.

Some of the protesters expressed doubt that bin Laden was actually killed since the US has refused to release pictures of his body.

Al-Qaida confirmed bin Laden's death in an Internet statement Friday and warned that it would seek revenge by attacking the United States. And the Afghan Taliban issued a statement saying the al-Qaida leader's death would boost morale among insurgents battling the US and NATO in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden and his associates did not offer significant resistance when the American commandos entered the compound, in part because "stun bombs" thrown by the US forces had disoriented them, two Pakistani officials said late Thursday, citing accounts by bin Laden's wives and children.

Pakistani authorities found an AK-47 and a pistol in the house, with evidence that one bullet had been fired from the rifle, said one of the officials.

"That was the level of resistance" they put up, he said.

His account is roughly consistent with the most recent one given by US officials, who now say only one of the five people killed in the raid was armed and fired any shots, a striking departure from the intense and prolonged firefight described earlier by the White House and others in the administration.

US officials say three men and a woman were killed alongside bin Laden, including one of his sons.

Bin Laden's wife, Abdullfattah, was shot in the leg and did not witness her husband being killed, a Pakistani military official said. One of the al-Qaida leader's daughters did see the Americans kill her father, he said.

CIA officers have not been given access to the women or children in custody, the official said.