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Obama urges Pakistan to probe bin Laden's support

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-09 09:49

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Sunday pressed the Pakistani government to investigate what kind of support Osama bin Laden might have in the country.

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"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan," Obama said during an interview with CBS show "60 Minutes."

"But we don't know who or what that support network was. We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," he said.

The interview comes a week after US forces killed the al- Qaeda leader in a raid on his compound only 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Islamabad and less than a mile from a top military academy.

The location caused some to suspect that Pakistani authorities might have some knowledge about the terror mastermind's whereabouts despite their repeated denial.

The killing of bin Laden put US-Pakistan relationship into spotlight. White House officials admitted that the two governments were at times at odds on fighting terrorism.

"We are working very hard on that relationship, it is an important and complicated relationship that has been tested in many ways over the years and even this year," White House press secretary Jay Carney said last week.