Osama bin Laden dead: 'crown prince of terror disappeared' during raid
A relative of Osama bin Laden disappeared during the raid by a crack team of US Navy Seals that killed the al-Qaeda leader, according to Pakistan security officials, deepening confusion over the fate of a son regarded as the Crown Prince of Terror.
Three of bin Laden’s widows, currently in Pakistani custody, have told interrogators that one son has not been seen since the operation on May 2.
The fresh details raise fears that the al-Qaeda leader’s youngest son and closest confidante, Hamza, may have escaped capture.
The White House initially claimed that Hamza, 20, had been killed at the house in Abbottabad, about 30 miles from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
Officials later said his 22-year-old brother Khalid had been killed instead.
Last night an intelligence source in Islamabad told The Daily Telegraphthat shifting accounts of what had happened, coupled with the widows’ testimony, left them unable to account for one person who they believe had been living at the house.
“We don’t know if it was his son. Someone, one person, may have been in the compound that we now cannot account for if - we believe what we are being told,” he said.
Bin Laden, who was married five times, had as many as 24 children.
No one knows for certain who was in the compound where bin Laden had lived, hidden in plain sight, for five years.
Hamza’s mother Khairiah Sabar has been widely reported to be among the family members in Pakistani custody.
Thought to be the youngest of the Saudi-born terror leader’s sons, Hamza has been described as the “crown prince of terror” by Patrick Mercer, a conservative MP.
He featured on an extremist website to mark the third anniversary of the July 7 London bombings in which 52 people died. He read a poem called for “destruction” of America, Britain, France and Denmark.
Intelligence agencies believe he was being groomed as a possible future leader of al-Qaeda, and he was implicated in the assassination of moderate Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
More than a week after the wives - along with 12 children - were picked up at the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, CIA interrogators have still not been given the chance to question them for crucial evidence.
US officials said they believe they will soon be allowed access to the women being held by Pakistan security.
However, a Pakistani government official denied that permission had been granted, saying local investigators had yet to finish their inquiry.
“It’s too early to even think about it,” said the official.
Amid rising tensions between Islamabad and Washington over the secret raid, US officials have blamed the ISI, the Pakistani secret service, for leaking the name of the CIA station chief in Islamabad in retaliation.
They however said that the agency veteran, who spends the vast majority of his time in the US embassy compound, would not be withdrawn from the country.
It also emerged that the US Navy Seals who killed bin Laden had permission to fight their way out of trouble and kill Pakistani forces if they were challenged during the operation.
It was decided that the team sent to raid the terror leader’s compound should be large enough to resist any Pakistani forces that reacted to the night time operation, after President Barack Obama reportedly raised the prospect of a clash. As a result, two extra helicopters were deployed to protect the assault team.
“Their instructions were to avoid any confrontation if at all possible. But if they had to return fire to get out, they were authorized to do it,” a senior US administration official told the New York Times.
“Some people may have assumed we could talk our way out of a jam, but given our difficult relationship with Pakistan right now, the president did not want to leave anything to chance.”