Osama had four children in Pakistan, widow says

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This article was published 31/03/2012 (5004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children — two of them born in government hospitals, his youngest widow has told investigators.

The details of bin Laden’s life as a fugitive in Pakistan are contained in the interrogation report of Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, bin Laden’s 30-year-old Yemeni widow. They appear to raise fresh questions about how bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt.

Details from the report were first published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. The Associated Press obtained a copy Friday.

Al-Sada is currently in Pakistani custody, along with bin Laden’s two other wives and several children. They were arrested after the U.S raid that killed bin Laden in May in his final hideout in the Pakistani army town Abbottabad. The U.S. Navy SEALs shot her in the leg during the operation.

Mohammed Amir Khalil, a lawyer for the three widows, said the women would be formally charged April 2 for illegally staying in Pakistan. The charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Since the bin Laden raid, it’s been known 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 Sept. 11 attacks.

After that, the family “scattered” and she travelled to Karachi in Pakistan. She later met up with bin Laden in Peshawar, then moved to the Swat Valley, where they lived in two houses. They moved once more before settling in Abbottabad in 2005.

According to the report, al-Sada said two of her children were born in government hospitals, but that she stayed only “two or three hours” in the clinics each time. The charge sheet against the three women says they gave officials fake identities.

During the manhunt for bin Laden, most U.S. and Pakistani officials said bin Laden was likely living somewhere along the remote Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The fact he was living in populated parts of Pakistan raised suspicions elements in the Pakistani security forces may have been hiding him. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence this was the case.

— The Associated Press