Bin Laden children born in government clinics, says widow

Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children, two of them born in government clinics, his youngest widow 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, his 30-year-old Yemeni widow. They appear to raise fresh questions over how Bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long in Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt.

Ms Sada says she travelled to Afghanistan in 2000, where she married Bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks. After that, the family "scattered" and she travelled to Karachi in Pakistan. She later met up with Bin Laden in Peshawar and then moved to the Swat Valley, where they lived in two houses. They moved once more before settling in Abbottabad in 2005, where she was arrested following the US raid that killed Bin Laden last May.

Ms Sada said two of her children were born in government clinics, but she stayed only "two or three hours" on both occasions, giving fake identities. She is in Pakistani custody, with Bin Laden's two other wives and several children. The women are to be formally charged for illegally staying in Pakistan, making them liable for prison sentences of up to five years.

AP