Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.
WASHINGTON: The finger of suspicion is pointing squarely at the Pakistani military and intelligence for sheltering and protecting Osama bin Laden before US forces hunted him down and put a bullet in his head on Sunday. The coordinates of the action and sequence of events suggest that the al-Qaida fugitive may have been killed in an ISI safehouse.
Within hours of the news of bin Laden's killing, speculation raged about Pakistan and its spy agency's role in the momentous episode. President Obama made it clear that the operation to hunt down bin Laden was conducted exclusively by US forces -- ''a small team of Americans,'' he said -- at his direction. While he thanked Pakistan's civilian government for its help, naming President Zardari in particular, he made no mention of any other active Pakistani role, especially in the operation. It was "all-American" and "Made in USA," he seemed to say.
But in a glaring counter-narrative, Pakistani security officials claimed bin Laden was nailed in a joint operation between CIA and Pakistani forces. "It was carried out on a very precise info that some high-value target is there," one Pakistani official was quoted as saying.
US analysts uniformly suggested this was clearly aimed at ducking charges of the Pakistani military's possible role in hiding bin Laden. ''This is hugely embarrassing for Pakistan,'' was a common refrain on US TV channels throughout the night.
In fact, top US officials have openly suggested for months that the Pakistani military establishment was hiding bin Laden. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came closest to publicly exposing Pakistan's role last May when she accused some government officials there of harboring Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
''I am not saying they are at the highest level...but I believe somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Taliban are,'' Clinton said on May 10 last year, adding, ''We expect more cooperation (from Pakistan) to help us bring to justice capture or kill those who brought us 9/11.''
Taken together with President Obama's pointed 'thank you' to President Zardari and leaving out any mention of Pakistani forces' involvement, it would seem that Washington believes that Pakistan's military intelligence establishment, including the ISI, was sheltering bin Laden. The ISI was accused as recently as last week by the top US military official Admiral Mike Mullen of having terrorist links, and named as a terrorist support entity by US officials, according to the Guantanamo cables.
Lending credence to the charges is the fact that US forces homed in on bin Laden in Abbottabad, which is a cantonment just 50 kms from Islamabad , where the Pakistani military has a strong presence. The place where bin Laden was killed is only kilometers from the Kakul military academy, where many Pakistani military elites, including some of its ISI cadres, graduate from.
While US officials are tightlipped about precise details, analysts are trying to figure out whether the compound that sheltered bin Laden was an ISI safehouse. There is also speculation as to whether Hillary Clinton was referring to this when she made her pointed remarks last May.
US officials have said for years that they believed bin Laden escaped to Pakistan after the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan. But Pakistani officials, including its former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, insisted that he was in Afghanistan , even as Afghan officials would angrily refute it and say he is in Pakistan. In the end, the Americans and Afghans were right on the money.
ABBOTABAD, PAKISTAN: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding out in a mansion near a Pakistani military training academy and less than two hours' drive from Islamabad when he was killed in a dramatic CIA-led operation involving helicopters and ground troops on Sunday night.
The revelation that bin Laden was sheltering inside Pakistan is likely to ratchet up pressure on Islamabad.
The country's arch-rival, India, was quick to comment, saying the news underlined its "concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan".
A Reuters photographer in the valley town of Abbotabad north of Islamabad said police had blocked the road leading to the area where the night-time raid at a huge compound took place.
"After midnight, a large number of commandos encircled the compound. Three helicopters were hovering overhead. All of a sudden there was firing towards the helicopters from the ground," said Nasir Khan, a resident of the town.
"There was intense firing and then I saw one of the helicopters falling down," said Khan, who had watched the dramatic scene unfold from his rooftop.
Senior Pakistani security officials said the operation, carried out at around 1:30 a.m., involved both helicopters and ground troops.
A Pakistani military helicopter crashed near Abbotabad on Sunday night, killing one and wounding two, according to local media. It was unclear if the crash was related to bin Laden's death, but witnesses reported gunshots and heavy firing before one of two low-flying helicopters crashed near the military academy.
Express 24/7 television showed an image of what it said was bin Laden shot in the head, his mouth pulled back in a grimace.
PAKISTAN FACES AWKWARD QUESTIONS
Bin Laden was the mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people and put the United States on a decade-long war footing.
The fact bin Laden was apparently living in relative luxury not far from Islamabad could pose awkward questions for Pakistan.
Just 10 days ago Pakistan's army chief addressed army cadets at the academy near where bin Laden was killed, saying the country's military had broken the back of militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"For some time there will be a lot of tension between Washington and Islamabad because bin Laden seems to have been living here close to Islamabad," said Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst.
"If the ISI had known then somebody within the ISI must have leaked this information," Gul said, referring to the Pakistani intelligence agency. "Pakistan will have to do a lot of damage control because the Americans have been reporting he is in Pakistan ... this is a serious blow to the credibility of Pakistan."
However, defence analyst and former general Talat Masood said the fact bin Laden was killed in a joint operation would limit the damage to Pakistan's image
"There should be a sigh of relief because this will take some pressure off of Pakistan," said defence analyst and former general Talat Masood. "Pakistan most probably has contributed to this, and Pakistan can take some credit for this -- being such an iconic figure, it's a great achievement."
Abbotabad is a popular summer resort, located in a valley surrounded by green hills near Pakistani Kashmir. Islamist militants, particularly those fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir, used to have training camps near the town.
Here are some key facts about Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials said late on Sunday has been killed and his body recovered by US Authorities.
Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, one of more than 50 children of millionaire construction magnate Mohamed bin Laden. His first marriage was to a Syrian cousin at the age of 17, and he is reported to have at least 23 children from at least five wives.
Convinced that Muslims are victims of US-led terrorism, bin Laden is blamed for masterminding a series of attacks on US targets in Africa and the Middle East in the 1990s. His family, which became rich from the Saudi construction boom, disowned him, and he was stripped of his Saudi citizenship.
He fought in the US-funded insurgency in the 1980s against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, where he founded al Qaeda. He returned to Afghanistan in the 1990s, training Islamist militants from across the world in camps allowed to function by the ruling Taliban.
Tall, gaunt and bearded, bin Laden was unhurt by US missile strikes on his Afghan camps after the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa. According to some reports, he was nearly killed by a US bomb when militants were being hunted late in 2001 in the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan.
Bin Laden approved the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States in which nearly 3,000 people died, saying later that the results had exceeded his expectations. With a $25 million US bounty on his head, he then evaded the world's biggest manhunt for a decade, with tens of thousands of US and Pakistani troops looking for him.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Dec. 2009 that the United States does not know where bin Laden has been hiding and has not had any good intelligence on his whereabouts in years.
More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, al Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahri, and their allies since the Sept 11 attacks in 2001.
In a Sept, 2007 video marking the sixth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks bin Laden said the United States was vulnerable despite its economic and military power, but he made no specific threats.
